TFP 8: Enemy of My Enemy
by Karra Greenfield
Summary: TFP AU: Continuing my rewrite of Season 3 of Transformers: Prime. With the help of friends from her human life, Elita begins the process of making the human team to aid Team Prime in taking down the M.E.C.H. threat. Unfortunately, there are a few Decepticon cogs in the works.
1. Chapter 1

Despite adding two new members to their group, it still took two weeks to scavenge everything that they could from their old base, Darkmount, and the Harbinger. With both the Dauntless and the Logikrator as new bases of operation, they were able to easily store their bounties and make the repairs that they needed to both ships. Between bouts of runs for Energon and working on the ships, Elita would make almost daily runs to Alden Military Base. She began to dig through the interviews of the M.E.C.H. agents that they had in custody and had a few more chats with Joel. Slowly she was beginning to get the pieces that she needed to help her and Jazz find the rest of his companions. John had used these visits to check on her healing progress. It was also with Agent Fowler's help that he was able to arrange a meeting with a friend from their past.

* * *

Elita rubbed the back of her neck with her left hand as she walked through the halls carrying her laptop in her right arm. She was heading back to her larger form, since it was waiting for her in the hanger bay area nearby as she once again was speaking to Joel. He began to be a bit more cooperative since her first visit, but she had been asked by Fowler, since he had been asked by one of the MPs, that she please leave the table in place since it was a pain in the butt to have to dig out and re-pour the bolts that held it in place. She promised, with a bit of humor to her smile, that she would do her best not to rip the table up.

"Now, I'm not so sure about keeping it in it's current shape," she told Fowler with a wink.

It was as she was placing her laptop in her side compartment that she heard a voice call out to her from behind. Giving a half turn, Elita smiled brightly as the pair of men came walking swiftly towards her. One was Slash, the medic, the other was a dear friend from so long ago.

"Spike Witwicky," she turned and hugged him as soon as he was close enough to do so. "It's been ages!"

"And you're apparently back from the dead," he greeted back, giving a squeeze with his own hug before letting her go. Holding her out at arm's length, he looked her over. "John told me what had happened when I got here, and from what he said I understood the need to not get into details over the phone. Man, it's good to see you, E."

"Between you and me, it's good to be seen and alive to do so. So what brings you out here? Surely you didn't make the trip just to see me."

"Of course I did," he admonished her. "Your mom had the whole group of us surrounding her at your funeral. I've never seen a whole town just stop for something like that," then he winced, "except it happened twice when your mother passed. We made sure we were there, too."

Elita smiled sadly up at him, since he still stood a head taller than she. "Thanks for that. I'm glad you guys were there for her."

"When does Optimus expect you back?" John asked when the pair were silent from the somber moment.

"No idea," she replied with a shrug. "He had said that they had gotten a coded message this afternoon about another possible Autobot landing here to help so they were taking care of that. Why?"

"Spike and I got to brainstorming and we think that we've come up with something that you and Jazz might like to hear. Agent Folwer said that he's got a fresh pot of coffee started in his office and had ordered supper for the four of us to discuss over."

Elita winced a bit at the thought of the coffee waiting for them. She adored William, she really did, but the man, despite how much of it he drank, couldn't make coffee. For some reason it always came out so strong it tasted burnt. "Really, he knows he should wait for me to make it or buy a Cup-by-Cup machine."

The trio made their way to Agent Fowler's office, greeting the Autobot liaison as they entered the room. Spike gave a surprised laugh at the small mountain of pizza boxes that filled the coffee table. "There's enough to feed a small army here."

"Or at least a small Autobot," Agent Fowler said. He was standing beside the coffee pot station he had set up in his office, stirring the drink in his mug around with the spoon on hand. With a couple of taps on the rim of his mug, he set the spoon down on a napkin on the small table and took a sip. Wincing, he looked into his mug. "When will I learn to wait for you to make it, Ellan?"

That got another round of laughter from the trio as they closed the door behind them. Elita promptly took the mug and the pot of coffee from Fowler and headed to the bathroom to rinse them out to begin a fresh pot. In the meantime the men got their food, because she had warned him that it would be gone before they left most likely. After passing around the mugs of black gold Elita grabbed one of the nearby boxes and smiled down at the treasure it contained.

"So, what's this idea that's worth so much food?" she asked after savoring a few slices.

Spike sat up a bit to look at her. "I've put in a request for a transfer here."

Elita blinked a bit at him. "O...kay. I'm sure Carly and Daniel would just _love_ it out here in the middle of nowhere, but why?"

"General Bryce thinks that we need to add some of the human factor to help take down M.E.C.H.," Fowler replied. "It'll add to the numbers that we really need to help find and retrieve your missing Autobots."

Elita sat back in Fowler's office chair, that he let her sit in, and frowned thoughtfully. There was so much more that a human could do in the situation that an Autobot couldn't. Vetting out candidates would be the trickiest part. "We know that Prime doesn't like the idea of getting humans truly involved in the fight between Cybertronian factions, but even he understands that they're a threat to both humans and Cybertonians alike. Alright. Let's get this all ironed out so I have everything that I need in place before talking to Optimus."

* * *

Plan in hand, so to speak, Elita made sure her new helmet was secured before pulling out of the hanger. It was late, the sun long gone, when she finally began the drive home. Or at least to an open part of the roadway where she would call for a Ground Bridge eventually. It had been a while since she had been out alone and she was planning on enjoying it. She would have escaped, she at least thought of it as such with a giggle, sooner but both forms still hurt from everything that happened for a long time past the initial healing. Tonight seemed to be perfect for it. The sky was clear, full of stars and a brightly shinning moon behind her. The chill to the air, aside from the wind chill from her driving, was exhilarating. Fall was finally settling into the lower part of the lower 48. It also reminded her that she needed to buy more clothes since her wardrobe didn't survive the destruction of the old base. That thought brought another one that filled her with sadness. Only a handful of her past life that she packed, all of the belongings that were hers and her parents and grandparents before her, was left.

Tuning down a junctioning roadway, she drove further into the night. She had no real destination in mind, just a feeling that she had to head this way. For hours she followed the pull, long ago driving off of the paved road into the surrounding desert. The directional urge eventually led her to a cavern area. Sliding off of her bike form, Elita pulled her helmet off of her head and looked into the dark abyss below. The rising sun began to slowly illuminate the gloom, but she didn't need it to see the faint, swirling trail of purple light. It ran in one huge circle in the cavern below, the source slowly forever following itself as it moved through its private course.

With the sun fully ascended from the horizon, Elita looked beside her as a huge Cybertronian figure faded into existance beside her. He looked like his brother, Dreadwing, save that he was in tones of green to his brother's blue. The figure looked disheartened as he watched the shadowy figure below slowly make the circuit again, pause to pick up the lone arm on the ground, attempt to place it where its missing appendage would have gone, despite it being too small, throw it back on the ground, and begin to walk again.

She recalled the boys filling her in about the Shadow-verse after she returned from her own inter-dimensional adventure. They had told her about how they had chased Miko through the Ground Bridge and the feedback of the Autobot and Descepticon Ground Bridges ended up trapping them with the Terrorcon Skyquake. Skyquake looked down at her, a longing in his optics. He apparently could not rest after his passing because of the Dark Energon that was now fueling his form. Much akin to his twin, his spark was not able to find peace because of it.

Elita looked back down into the cavern below, trying to ignore the pleading look the ghost next to her was giving, but her giving nature won out. "Alright, alright. I'll see what I can do," she told Skyquake as she climbed back onto her larger form. Falling in as she transformed, Elita gave her systems a moment to sync before she activated her optics. "Thought I have a feeling this is going to hurt."

With the coding from the Forge of Solus Prime now added to her own, Elita looked down at the figure below once more to calculate what she needed to do to open up the world that the lonesome creature was trapped in. Reaching out her right hand, she activated the Ground Bridge remote control piece she had grabbed during her fight with Megatron, having kept it as a sort of momento, and used it to open a portal before the shambling creature. It roared at it and rushed towards it, as if it had been given a renewed purpose for existing, and soon was stepping out the other side into the physical realm that it had inhabited when it was alive. Closing the portal, Elita began to leap from small outcropping of rocks that jutted out of the side of the cavern to eventually land several hundred feet in front of the Terrorcon.

Skyquake roared at seeing her, arching its back to cry out to the sky, before it charged at her. Elita calmly stood her ground and reached out towards him as he rushed towards her. Her hand began to glow brilliantly as she pulled the Dark Energon from him as he quickly closed the distance. He began to slow, stumbling to a halt as he reached out to grab a hold of her, close enough for her hand to touch his torso plating. His form slowly began to crumble, bits falling to the rocky ground as the energy that was once holding him together left.

Elita roughly sat down on the ground as the last bits of Skyquake fell. Looking up at the space before her that he had once occupied, she saw the ghost of the Cybertronian that she had just aided in finding peace. He was smiling down at her now and soon faded from view after giving her a grateful bow. She just sat there, now looking at the broken parts before her, feeling nauseated as her body shook from the dark energy she just absorbed. Reaching out to the pieces that had once made up Skyquake, she began to focus the energy around them. She watched as they shifted in the purple bubble that she had formed around the pieces, and slowly they began to take shape. When she had finished, there were two small statues, one of Skyquake and the other of Dreadwing, standing on top of a block with scrip written in Cybertronian saying 'Gave their all for the sake of Honor.'

Pulling herself off of the ground, Elita opened her communicator to the Autobot base to call for a Ground Bridge home. With the brilliant portal opening before her, she walked through it and soon it closed behind her, leaving the scene of what was once someone's endless torture quite and peaceful.

Kup greeted her as she walked through the other end of the portal. "Wasn't sure you were going to come home anytime soon, kid. What took you so long? Get into a fight?"

She replied as she rubbed the back of her neck, "Not really. Just … gave someone some closure. How did it go with the new guy?" When Kup shook his head with a roll of his optics she smirked, "That good, eh?"

"I was just hoping to never see his sorry crank-case again," the Wrecker founder answered. With a sweep of his arm, he began to escort her down the hall to the command center. "Optimus has been waiting to introduce you, so I'll let him have all the fun with that."

She followed silently as they made their way to the bridge. Really, all she wanted to do right now was get some rest, but it was her fault she was so tired. Everyone that was in the command center paused their conversation and watched the pair enter. Optimus, Jazz, and Ratchet were all surrounding the new comer, who stood at least head and shoulders above the Medic.

"Where have you been?" Ratchet demanded almost instantly as she and Kup came to a stop beside them.

Elita rolled her optics at both his tone and his almost habitual scan-her-upon-encounter action that he had been developing lately. "Stop mother-hening me."

"Ultra Magnus," Optimus spoke up before Ratchet had a chance to retort, "this is Elita-One. Elita, this is Ultra Magnus. He was one of the commanders for the Elite Guard and had taken over the Wrecker unit as well during the waning days of the war on Cybertron."

Well, now she knew part of the reason that Kup wasn't too thrilled. "Charmed," she forced a smile. Looking over at Optimus she asked, with a bit of humor in her voice, "Did you successfully explain about me to this one or do I have to show him, too?"

"I am aware of your non-original Cybertronian form, yes," Mangus replied, making her look back at him.

"Good. One less thing I have to worry about." She then focused back on Optimus. "When you get a moment, I would like to discuss something that a few of us came up with to deal with M.E.C.H.."

Prime nodded towards her before looking at the group he had been speaking with. "Excuse us."

Ultra Magnus frowned as he watched Optimus and Elita walk out of the command center. "Such blatant disrespect for her commanding officers. Hardly a tolerable trait in a good soldier."

Kup scoffed. "Just because she has backbone not to quake in fear before you and your authority doesn't mean she's disrespectful. She just doesn't take slag from anyone. Not anymore."

"Yeah, you missed it when she threatened to rip Ratchet's arm off and beat him with it if he didn't leave her alone," Jazz added.

Ratchet rolled his optics with a scoff. "Pu-leeze. She was in dire need of repair and refused to allow me to work on her."

"She just needed more help that you could give her," Kup informed their companion before he turned to leave.

Magnus just eyed Kup as the scarred bot walked out of the command center to go back to his assigned task on the ship. Turning he looked at Ratchet as he and Jazz walked over to the scanning station, since he overheard Jazz mentioning that he had some hope in Elita's plan on how to go about dealing with M.E.C.H.. The Medic, he noticed, didn't look as thrilled about the conversation as the bot speaking to him was. As Prime's second-in-command, he would have to do something about the attitude of the pretender, since she was causing a wave of discourse through the ranks.

* * *

Author's Note:

I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.

Onto the next story!


	2. Chapter 2

Hot air swirled around them as they scavenged through the remains of the Omega Lock to look for anything that could be salvageable from their encounter with the Autobots. Knockout groaned as he and the two drone workers that were beside him lifted up one of the many panels to the massive pillars that had once made up the device, letting it slide down and away from them, ending with a huge crash that sent up a rust cloud. This task had been assigned him over three weeks ago by Earth time and it had done a number to his finish. The Decepticon Doctor looked down at himself with a groan. All this rust floating in the air was doing absolutely nothing positive for his finish and it would take weeks most likely to buff out all the scratches. Brushing his hands off of one another, Knockout looked around to see the progress they had made. Most of the group that had been sent with him on this fool's errand were some of the group that had expressed to him the need to help take out M.E.C.H.. The others had been sent on the usual scouting drives or sent to work in whichever Energon mine that Megatron had going at that time. It was almost as if Megatron was punishing them for simply the thought of needing to take out what they had perceived as a threat to them all and, with all honestly, the way Soundwave keeps track of everything on the ship for their Liege Lord it was a possibility.

"Sir," one of the drones called out to him as he approached, carrying a sizable item in his hands.

Knockout turned to face the drone, a smile of delight crossing his face for the first time in weeks. They had apparently found something useful, or at least a surviving artifact from the last battle here. "The Apex Armor. Excellent! Lord Megatron will be pleased with..." he had looked up at the drone and happened to catch a sight behind the whole group, "...this." Silently he walked past the drone and over to the far edge of the Omega Lock's remains and stared out at the rising cloud in the distance. Something was kicking up the powdered rust and whatever it was was moving at an incredible speed toward them.

* * *

In the room that she had been given by Kup, Elita had managed to not only set up a new hydroponic garden system but a living area for the human figures of the group. It had a small living room area made of a couple of couches and a TV, a dinning table that sat six, and a computer work area. Granted it was mostly used furniture from second hand stores, but no one using it seemed to have a problem with it. The only problem, according to Elita, was there was no real kitchen. A couple of crock-pots or hotplates made a good temporary set up, but what real use did Cybertronians have for indoor plumbing for water and waste removal? Having to Ground Bridge to the human base made doing dishes a pain in the rear, so she found herself not doing much in the way of cooking while at 'home'.

Ultra Magnus calmly walked into her living quarters, taking a moment to look around at the strange setting before him before speaking. He found Elita in her separate forms, the smaller one sitting at the table with her back to him while her larger one rested in its vehicular mode nearby. The human component was looking over several papers that were spread over the table surface before her, a small computer and three piles piles of green folders of sitting among them. She would flip through some of them, look through another pile of papers, sometimes write on the pages, and then type out something on her computer, that was playing music again, as she muttered to herself about whatever it is that was going through her mind. It looked like a very disorganized mess to him.

The music suddenly went silent as her larger form transformed, optics dark, and stepped up to him. "Can I help you?" she asked.

Once again she was using this empty shell of hers to address him while her smaller form focused on its own tasks. That was another sign of disrespect, at least from his point of view. But that was a topic for another time. "I have noticed that you have been accessing previous mission files while on your assigned monitor duty."

"I wasn't aware that I needed permission to look at the logs."

"Be that as it may," Magnus continued, "I was simply wishing to know what information that you are looking for and what it pertains to with your work with the human military that you seemed to be focused on."

"My research has nothing to do with helping build up the task force for taking out M.E.C.H.. It does; however, have to do with a side project that I have been unwittingly tasked with."

"Which is?"

The human form stopped her work and twisted around in the chair it was sitting in to look at him, one arm hanging over the back as she did so. "Are you always so nosy?"

"When it comes to properly protecting the Autobots and our cause, yes."

Elita gave a short laugh with a slight smirk before returning to her work. "I'm fixing some ongoing issues that have been unknowingly unchecked for a while know. Apparently whatever Vector Sigma did to me made it possible. So don't worry your pretty little head about it and let me do my job."

Unsatisfied with her answer, but knowing that he would receive nothing more at the moment, Ultra Magnus turned and left the room. Her larger form returned to her side and into its resting state as he did so. Making his way to the bridge, he began to access the same files that he had noticed the disrespectful pretender had, though he noticed that she made absolutely no real effort into hiding her activities, and began to run algorithms between the files and her Ground Bridge coordinates, both to and from the Autobot bases, to find what common thread that they all contained. It was a the search began to narrow down that Ratchet had walked in and over to his own work station.

Ultra Magnus frowned as he read over the information, "Ratchet."

The tone that the Commander had instantly gained the Medic's attention, recognizing the serious nature of his voice when something was needing direct attention right at that moment. He turned and headed to Magnus' side instead of reaching his station, "Yes, Sir?"

"Tell me what you have learned about Dark Energon."

Ratchet's optics widened as he looked between Prime's Commander and the data scrolling across the screen. He, of course, recognizing the data, since he looked over at Elita several times and caught it on the screen as she ignored him while she did whatever research she was working on, but even now he was confused. "What has she done now?"

* * *

"And I keep telling you, I have nothing more to say."

Elita sighed as she rubbed her forehead. Again she sat at the table in the interrogation room. Again she was trying to get Joel to give her any information about M.E.C.H., but again he was being difficult. Finally she just sat back and looked at her ex. "Guess you're not leaving me with much of a choice, now are you? We have a team set up to start taking you and those of you who are left after Cylas' betrayal of his own force, in case you've forgotten that, out and we will hunt you all down. I've been waiting for the techies to release y'all's computer systems to me, and you know what will happen when I get my hands on it." She smirked a bit when Joel shifted uncomfortably in his chair. "You know that I'll find something on them and you know that I'll be ready for whatever tricks you have tucked away with the information on those systems."

When Joel didn't speak, Elita looked down at the table as she placed her hand on it. The metal surface began to grow warm under her touch, slowly, but it was still noticeable as it seemed to increase the more of her own cool she lost. Pulling her hand away slowly, Elita stood up. There were things that Joel didn't need to know. Things that still had a possibility of getting back to the wrong people. "Alright, fine. Any and all offers that have been placed down for your aid are now revoked."

Leaving Joel he tried to stand and follow her, only for the handcuffs to the table preventing him from doing so, Elita simply walked out of the room and let the MP close the door behind her. She had already spent too long away from her larger form and was beginning to feel weaker from doing so. Her body, it appears, was still healing from the fight with Megatron over a month back.

Agent Fowler and Commander Witwicki were waiting beside her bike half, both holding part of the stack of folders that she had given to Fowler when she first arrived. With a tired sigh, she did her best to smile for the pair. "Evening, gentlemen."

"Evening," Fowler replied with a smile and nod.

"Are you feeling alright?" Spike asked, his concern evident in his voice.

"Just needing to get back, that's all." When Spike gave her an incredulous look she just smiled. "I promise that's all it is."

After a moment he just nodded. "Ok. Go on home and get some rest."

She had to give a short laugh at the very thought. "Rest? What is this rest you speak of?"

"Exactly my point," Spike sighed. "Look, things are pretty quiet out here. From what you've updated Fowler with, the 'Bots seem to have things under control on their end. Go get you some rest. You still need it according to Slash."

"Yeah, yeah. We all know what happens when things get quiet, though," she countered as she climbed onto the back of her bike form. "See ya!"

The pair watched her call for a ground bridge portal and drive through it before it winked shut. With folders in hand, the pair walked to Fowler's office to secure the folders in a locked cabinet before heading home themselves.

* * *

In the dark confines of the ship, Knockout walked into one of the many storage chambers. It had been a busy time after the discovery of Shockwave and his pet Predacon, mostly due to their efforts being switched from searching the remains of the Omega Lock to helping find and set up a personal laboratory for the newly found Decepticon scientist. Naturally his continued work during his stay on Cybertron only interested Megatron more as to what new found destruction that the Decepticon leader could cause with it. But with their glorious leader now focused on this new possible means to achieving his goals, it gave the others a bit of a respite from their duties.

Knockout looked around at the Vehicons gathered in the chamber as the door shut behind him. He counted around twenty-five Vehicons all waiting for him. _A good number,_ he thought to himself with a nod as he stepped closer to the group. They had formed a half circle around him, each one giving the colorful Decepticon their undivided attention.

"Thanks to the few of you that managed to remain on Earth and work your scout missions into some recon for our own uses, we have managed to locate a possible M.E.C.H. base. We'll hit it tonight and see what horrors we can further prevent from happening to any more of our Cybertronian brothers."

* * *

Author's Note:

I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.


	3. Chapter 3

The location that the scouts had discovered was rather isolated. The abandoned looking building inhabited a small clearing that was surrounded by thick foliage. It was the handful of humans covered in head-to-toe M.E.C.H. style armor patrolling around the building that was bleeding light through holes in its structure that gave the tell-tale signs that it was at least inhabited. The Cybertronian team was silently crouching in the tree line, looking down at the facility that they had located earlier in the day. They were watching the tiny humans that were walking the perimeter fence slowly make their rounds and took note of how long it took which one to reach the end of their sweep and turn back to do it all over again.

Turning to the others with him, Knockout nodded to the Vehicons that were awaiting his instructions. "Alright boys. We go in, hit 'em hard, and get out before Megatron realizes that we're not on the ship. And remember, don't scratch the paint job."

* * *

It had taken the better part of the night after Elita returned to the _Dauntless_ to get everything settled enough for her to find her way to her room to get some sleep. Her first task was to input the intelligence gathered by the human military into the Autobot's systems, translate it into Cybertronian before cross-referencing that data with what Optimus' team had obtained. Only by that point in time was she able to narrow down the most vital points before translating that into American English. Transferring the data back onto a compatible storage device she then headed out of the command center and towards her room. This, of course, all happened under the watchful optics of Ultra Mangus, who had been reading over the sensor reports for that day.

It was in the privacy of her room that Elita separated from her larger form, making it rest in vehicle mode for the time being, and pulled the stacks of folders that Spike and Agent Fowler had given her before she left. A pot of coffee and whatever meal that Spike had tucked away in her shoulder storage compartment were quick to join the paperwork on her little table so that she could eat while reviewing more personnel files. Between the three of them a team was slowly forming. A few hours and as many pots of coffee later she had settled the paperwork and cleaned up her mess.

With pillow and blanket in hand Elita did her best to settle onto the bench seat of her larger form, having to curl her legs in some to fit across the whole thing. Unless she just wanted to prop her feet up over one side or rest her head over the other tire-well, in which it grew very uncomfortable and she always ended up curled up on the bench throughout the night. Her other option was to sleep inside her larger form, but the wound she had taken to the side still bugged her some which made that somewhat uncomfortable as well.

"Just for a little while longer," she reminded herself with a huge yawn before snuggling down into her pillow.

It was as she felt her body grow heavy with impending rest that someone rushed into her room.

~Elita, come quickly,~ Bumblebee said, ~Fowler just called and said that someone attacked another possible M.E.C.H. location.~

Elita turned her face to groan into her pillow before bolting upright and shoving her bedding into her storage compartment. The next moment she was transforming into her larger form, merging in the process, and was quickly following the scout and Jazz to the Ground Bridge control room. The trio were met in the chamber by Ratchet and Optimus before the group rushed through the portal.

Instead of being transported to the Alden Military base like she had expected, they arrived at the sight of the incident. The nearby military forces that had responded were keeping the area in scrutiny under their guard, a group surrounding a score of men that were waiting on their knees for their transport. Agent Fowler and Commander Witwiky had arrived earlier waiting for the group to join them at the building.

"Hurry, Ratchet, inside," Fowler said as he motioned for the bots to go past him.

Optimus let the medic ahead them all and followed him into the building. Inside they had found what the M.E.C.H. agents had occupying themselves with before whatever battle that had brought everything to a sudden halt. Shock was the least of their worries as they took in the mess. Surrounded by all sort of computer systems, a massive table rested in the center of the building. On the table a small Cybertronian rested, limbs and panels scattered around in bins. Every bit splattered in glowing blue, much like the men outside that were awaiting their new jail cells. Ratchet wasted no time in rushing over to the bot, scanning the form as the others surrounded the table. Elita was at the medic's side as he began to attempt to repair what damage he could on the field. Behind her she heard Jazz finally break out of his shock, his voice weak from the affect of the carnage around them.

"Chromia."

Agent Fowler and Spike had walked up beside the bots during this time, Witwicky frowning in sympathy as Jazz had to look away with Bumblebee gently patting his shoulder as he reassured their companion.

"I had received a call on my office phone. The caller had just given me the coordinates and said that Ratchet would be needed." Fowler said, "It was the same secure line that Megatron had established during the whole Dark Mount incident. When were arrived there was the unmistakable glow of a Ground Bridge, but no indication to who it belonged to. We're assuming the Decepticons, given that you knew nothing about what had happened prior to arriving here."

"Ratchet, is she stable enough to move to the base?" Optimus asked.

"She's very weak," the medic replied. "Whoever attacked this base of operations had enough knowledge to hook her up to a field life support system, but we need to get her repaired quickly if she is to have any chance to survive the night."

Prime frowned thoughtfully at the information, his mind trying to work through any and all possibilities that it might mean. Had one of the M.E.C.H. agents given up on his own group and was working with Megatron now? And if so, why had they not taken Chromia with them when they left? With Ratchet's permission, Optimus gently scooped up Chromia from the table while the others gathered up what parts they could find and placed them in the bins to take with them. Without a moment to spare Prime called for a Ground Bridge and they quickly made their exit. He knew that Elita would meet up with the humans when she was next able to and update them all on their side.

When they stepped through the other side of the Ground Bridge they all hurried to the medical bay and let Ratchet take over once more. Elita took up assisting him when he called for it. When a component was called for and no one could find it Elita simply made a new one. Fortunately for her most of Chromia was still available to be salvaged. Despite their advantage, it still took the pair nearly two days to complete their repairs and it was only when the femme was resting soundly on the repair berth that Ratchet went to find his own recharge. Elita knew she didn't have that luxury. Leaving Jazz to sit and wait for Chromia to wake-up, she took her leave to get caught up with Fowler and Witwicky.

* * *

Knockout and the Vehicons that had gone with him were privately excited over what they had accomplished. They had tracked down one of the illusive branches of M.E.C.H. and saved one of their own Cybertronians, despite it being an Autobot, from the humans' filthy grasp. They had made a strike against a threat that had existed for far too long. Now it was time to plan the next one.

* * *

Megatron had frowned over the data points that Soundwave had given him. It wasn't unusual for members of his crew to leave the ship, most having their own scout patrols to attend to, or for the rare occasion that they had completed their tasks and were using their free time to mess with the humans. This particular group had seemed to leave separately only for their scanners to show that they had met up at a location that soon had not only the human military interested, but the Autobots as well.

"It appears that I have some loose cannons among my crew," the tyrant said thoughtfully. "Keep me updated if they do this again."

* * *

Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading!

Hey everyone! I'm looking for 10 – 15 beta readers for some original fiction that I'm looking to publish. It would be for the first 3 chapters and utilizing the DocX function through FF net. If you're interested please feel free to PM me. If you don't have a FF net account and wish to beta I have my social media links listed in my profile. Thank you all for your time.


	4. Chapter 4

On the _Dauntless'_ command center, Optimus, Elita, Magnus, Jazz, and Kup were looking down at Commander Witwicki and Agent Fowler as the pair of humans were discussing with the Autobots the most recent development. It was an unsettling fact that not only that someone else was hunting M.E.C.H. down, but doing a more efficient job at it.

"The only ones that would have the capabilities, especially with you seeing the glow of a Ground Bridge, would be the Decepticons," Kup stated bluntly as he adjusted the detonator in his mouth.

"Doesn't come across as something that they'd do," Elita said. "Megatron doesn't strike me as the kind to leave buildings standing and witnesses alive."

"He's not," Magnus replied with a frown, "but perhaps some of his subordinates could be taking things into hand."

"Do drones have free will to do so?" Agent Fowler asked as he looked up at Optimus.

Prime nodded slowly as he pondered all the information silently. "They do possess the capability of their own thoughts, though that could have easily have been circumvented by Megatron eons ago to keep them under his control."

"Tyrants usually don't care for independent thought," Spike said.

"That would explain why there's so few in his ranks that have unique personalities," Jazz muttered. "Aside from that, it makes me wonder why they're doing it and what are they looking for."

"On a more positive note," the human commander went on, "we've got a good team picked out and ready to start their training."

Optimus gave the pair of humans a grateful nod. "We look forward to working with your team."

After the last few details of the meeting were concluded, Elita had escorted Spike and William to the Ground Bridge control room and made sure that the pair returned to Alden safely, despite Spike's grumblings how the portal was torture to his stomach. With a chuckle to herself, she walked into the repair chamber to check on Chromia. The newest to their ranks had woken up the day before and Arcee and Jazz had insisted that they be the one to catch their friend up on what had happened. Ratchet, as usual, was working in the room, double checking his scans of his most recent patient to make sure that she was making an acceptable recovery. The medic did glance back at Elita as she stopped over by the repair berth that Chromia was sitting on as she listening to Jazz.

"I want to be a part of that," the lighter blue fem said almost as soon as Jazz had finished explaining about the team of humans that was going to help them track down the rest of their shipmates.

When her optics settled on Elita, she found it really hard to tell her no. There was such an earnest desire in their newest member's optics that she had to help save the others from the nightmare that she had endured. "Focus on healing up. Listen to Ratchet, except the grumbling," Elita winked, which earned a giggle from Chromia and a round of muttering from the medic, "and let me see where we can incorporate some of Team Prime. We're a pretty slim crew despite the increase of our numbers recently and I can't leave him short handed."

* * *

When looking over the group, Elita was not surprised at the amount of faces that she readily recognized. The majority she had seen several times with any of the dealings with M.E.C.H. and those who had direct contact with any of the Autobots when Fowler had needed their aid in the past. Commander Witwicky had quickly taken to getting everyone and everything organized, including the provisions for transferring soldiers and moving their families. The once small town nearby had not only grown due to most of the population from Jasper re-rooting there, but the growth of the base meant that there was another boom in store for the once struggling area.

Spike and Elita quickly settled the new group into their positions and the men took to their tasks like ducks to water. With any luck, any new members would quickly incorporate themselves as easily. Slash stayed on hand, his reasoning was that Kirk and Spock always needed Bones to keep them in check. The pair could never figure out who exactly fit whom, but it made as much sense as anything else.

There had been another mysterious attack on a M.E.C.H. location in the following two weeks. As with the first, Agent Fowler had been called on the secured line that Megatron had utilized after the fact. Unlike the first, there were no captured Cybertronians to be rescued. No one from the Autobot side had been an active part of it until after Fowler received the call and there was no way of contacting any of the Decepticons to confirm that they were the ones doing the hunting. The unsettling thing was that Megatron had also been oddly silent during this time as well, aside from a few pings of the use of his Space Bridge to Cybertron, but exactly what the tyrant was doing was anyone's guess.

With a sigh, Elita, her human form sitting on the back of her bike, shoved the wrappers of her meal back into the to-go bag that it had come in and drank down the last bit of the drink before tossing the whole collection into the trashcan in the parking lot. Her mind had been in a constant whirl since the destruction of the original base with few quiet moments for her to try to straighten things out in her own head. If she was truly honest with herself, she felt pulled into too many directions to be able to focus on any given one properly. Settling back on the bench, Ellan closed her eyes as she rubbed her head. Now was a rare quiet moment to get her thoughts straightened out.

The plans that Vector Sigma had for her were still a ways off. Alpha Trion had assured her of that, but had warned her that she still needed to prepare herself for what was to come. She just wasn't sure what she could do to prepare herself for rebuilding a planet. Figuring out the ideal music playlist was the closest thing that she could settle on for the moment, so she set that whole project to the side in her head.

The whole Dark Energon thing was a headache in and of itself and she would deal with it as those situations came up. No real sense in hunting the junk out. If she concentrated she could find bits of it everywhere. Aside from there being so much, it made both of her forms hurt from both the use and the withdraw symptoms she felt after, like it was a high that she had to deal with crashing afterwards.

Megatron was best handled by Optimus and his team, as it had been since before she showed up to their little party. It was benefiting Prime to have more Autobots join with them to help give their side a better edge, they just needed to find the others from the Logikrator.

M.E.C.H. still needed to be cleaned out. The group was a threat to not only Cybertronians, but to human kind before the two species became intertwined. Aside from her personal ties to the group, she knew that it had to be stopped before she could focus on Cybertron. She had a gut feeling that there was a lot more to the group than what they had encountered. Something was telling her that there was no possible way that M.E.C.H. had been operating for so long without discovery before all of this, that there were higher ups in the military food chain that had been keeping this group hidden and funded. Unfortunately, that might have world wide factors that they would have to deal with since there had been known M.E.C.H. installations in at least two countries.

"So that's where I'll direct my energy and aid Optimus when he needs me. The group would benefit from learning how to take out 'Cons, too, or anything else that M.E.C.H. builds," she muttered to herself.

It wouldn't take long to pack her belongings. The longest and most difficult task would be to move her garden, and that was still in its infancy. Also, moving onto the base would put her closer to the human unit she would advise, which was preferred. It would also keep her away from Ultra Magnus and Ratchet, both of which had become hovering shadows as of late and because of that rather cumbersome and annoying. Everything that she would do was scrutinized by the commander, as if he thought she was a threat to the Autobots, and she was annoyed by the fact that he had been carrying around the Forge after asking Optimus to use it since it's original purpose had been completed. As far as Ratchet was concerned, she didn't feel that things would ever be the same between her and the medic.

Sitting up and placing her helmet on, Elita took a deep breath as she positioned herself to drive. Move forward, keep the past in the rear view mirrors, and take the lessons learned. With that in mind she took off towards the base, the sun setting behind her.

Driving into Hanger E, Elita saw that the human group was gearing up. Commander Witwicky found her quickly and gave her the update that Fowler got another call and that they were heading to the scene. The Autobots were already preparing themselves for another on site extraction.

Merging, Elita followed the group through the Ground Bridge portal that opened up in the hanger. They arrived in time for Kup to reopen the doorway to their destination, the Autobots taking the lead in case it was a trap. The smoldering remains of what was once a factory still burned eerily in the early dusk. The group of humans were quick to rush past the Autobots and into fray to round up the M.E.C.H. agents that were attempting to run off. Prime's team began to scout around, securing the perimeter as Ratchet, Elita, and Arcee entered the building.

Inside were crates full of Energon stacked on the far side. Surprisingly, the wall that it had been stacked against had sustained the least amount of damage. The smoldering piles were what had remained of their computer system. Looking it over, Elita saw that the damage that they had sustained was from explosives that had been implanted into the CPUs to destroy any and all data that had been contained within. Hanging her head a bit, Elita realized that M.E.C.H. were learning from previous experiences as well. She looked around for anything that she could use to put out the fire, struggling a bit with the small fire extinguisher in her larger hands while Ratchet and Arcee searched the rest of the building. Fortunately or unfortunately, whichever one wanted to see for the situation, they did not find any of their missing Autobots.

Without the possible emergency need of patient transport, the Autobots had simply became extra guards while the humans scrutinized and processed the site. It was while the crates of Energon were being loaded onto Optimus' trailer that an important discovery was made.

Elita looked over from where she knelt in front of what remained of the computers as Witwicky and Fowler were called over to the far wall. The soldiers there had found a lift that opened down to under the building. At Optimus' nod, Arcee and Chromia moved over to the lift and stepped on, their weapons out and at the ready. The chatter over their communicator told her everything. Below this base was a rail system, one that could have very well been attached to the laboratory she had found herself in. It would explain how the Energon had been moved here and how they were keeping themselves from being tracked topside. She didn't recall any other railway entrances being located in any of the other take downs, but that only meant that she would have to go back to those sites look for herself.

* * *

Megatron was not too pleased over images that were playing on the screen before him. Soundwave had notified him as soon as Knockout and a group of Vehicons had utilized the Ground Bridge control system to gain access to the planet. Naturally the silent Decepticon had sent Lazerbeak to watch the group. Turning away from the repeating video of the group of traitors that were attacking what looked to be a human base, the tyrant simply smiled at the most loyal standing before him.

"Looks like we found some volunteers for Shockwave's next round of experiments. Begin assigning them their transfers. If they begin to notice that their numbers are thinning, then they'll get back in line. If not, you know where to send them when they return from their next excursion."

* * *

Despite using her new little repair trick, Elita found that although she was able to physically repair the hard drives, the data they had once contained was forever lost. With that dead-end set to the side she began to investigate the known M.E.C.H. sites. They had to be missing something. To keep anyone else's hopes down about what she might find, Elita waited until after the human team were done with their training for the day and sent for their rest.

She had searched the first site from top to bottom with both forms, even going as far as to crawl around the perimeter of the building in search of anything that would indicate a hidden panel or opening to the possible rail system that most of the known M.E.C.H. installations had. Elita had a feeling that since this was the place that Kup found and recovered Jazz from, that despite the military removing every storage container and bit of equipment that there might be something that had possibly been left behind. The only things that had not been taken were the electrical outlets, light switches, overhead lights, and the internal crane system that had probably been original to the building when it was in its industrial heyday.

Standing in the middle of the warehouse, Elita did a slow turn. She was missing something, she had to be. Frowning to herself as she walked over to the crane system control box, she wondered if it was really that easy. Elita had to separate herself, the box too small for her Cybertronian hands to effectively look it over. Trying out the buttons on it, she watched the device move, lift and lower the hook, but it was a button located at the very top of the device, one that she found more by feel than sight, that interested her. She could press it down, but it appeared to have no function. Looking up at the apparatus again, Elita moved the crane all the way over to where she stood beside the wall, only stopping it when it had no where else to go, before pressing the odd button once more. Her larger form had to step away quickly as the floor began to split open. Now that the secret doors were out of the way, Elita held onto her smaller form by her feet and lowered it down into the opening, finding yet another rail way system.

"So that's how you sneaky little rats have been doing it. No surprise, that's how you moved me in the first place."

Once back up top, Elita reconnected her forms and called in to the human base. She needed a team to investigate this site as she moved on to the others.

* * *

Elita had managed to find the secret opening to the rails system in the building that they had found Chromia in when she heard heavy foot falls behind her. Still kneeling down at the opening, she looked over at the pair that had decided to suddenly join her. Naturally she would expect the other femme to be nervous in the building, no doubt some memories of her time here flashing back as she took things in. What Elita didn't expect, though she wasn't really surprised, was Ultra Magnus being with her. The uptight Autobot was calmly looking the building over himself, apparently unimpressed by what he saw.

"Ratchet had warned that the humans were … lacking in certain aspects of decorum," he managed to say.

Elita sighed as she gained her feet. "Not the best, or even sub-par, examples of the human race, no." She eyed Magnus as he set the Forge head down on the ground before she spoke again. "Can I help you two?"

"I was simply checking on the progress of your private endeavors," Magnus said after a moment. "You seem to check in more with the humans than with your Autobot commanders."

"Funny, I wasn't aware that I was to report to you," Elita replied as she crossed her arms. "Optimus is well aware of what I've been doing."

Maguns frowned, again she was showing him disrespect, this time in front of a fellow subordinate. When Elita simply turned away from him to make her call to the humans, he followed her. The series of "Yeah, found another.", "No, not yet.", and "I'll let you know." came from the femme before she simply turned around and smiled at Chromia, who had stepped closer as well.

"It's good to see you hitting the field more. The guys giving you a good tour of the world?"

"Arcee and Jack have been showing me the ropes so far," the lighter blue femme replied, still glancing around the building as if looking for the horrors to come back.

Seeing this, Elita put on a warm, calming smile, as she rested her hand on the other femme's shoulder and gently began to escort her out of the building. "Why don't you tell me about your favorite sites so far?"

It allowed the newest team member to relax into a smile as they stepped out of the building, which Ultra Magnus noticed with a thoughtful frown. It was a controlling tactic, but one that seemed to bring comfort. It seemed that Elita had no respect for authoritative figures over herself, but she showed an abundance for subordinates.

Magnus called for a Ground Bridge, the trio waiting for the portal to open up when Elita's phone rang. Answering it, the two with her understood by the look on her face that it wasn't a pleasant call.

"Get the group gathered, we'll secure the site first," was all she said before she hung up her phone and rushed through the portal, Magnus and Chromia hard on her heels.

Inside the Ground Bridge chamber, the trio were greeted by Kup and Ratchet, the pair just rushing into the room while Arcee was manning the controls. The group waited for Arcee to close the current doorway and open a new one before they rushed through. Chaos greeted them as they appeared right outside of the Ground Bridge and the Autobots wasted no wasted no time in joining the fray.

M.E.C.H. agents were striking the attacking Vehicon forces as hard as the Decepticons were fighting, and when they had noticed the Autobots that had joined them the Cybertronian forces began to move in closer. Elita and Ratchet rushed beside Knockout as he was scrambling to save the bulky green and yellow bot that had been mostly disassembled on a table, her focus torn between what he was doing and helping the Vehicon that were giving cover fire as the medics worked.

The Cybertronians began to relax a bit as the humans started to suddenly run the opposite way, rushing out of the building, but things were still somewhat tense with the opposing forces eyeing each other as if waiting for another fight to begin. It was the whine of something further into the room that gained Elita's instant attention. On the stockpile of Energon crystals were several bricks of C-4, her sensitive ears picking up the incendiary device powering up.

"Scrap! Maguns! Call a Ground Bridge! Everyone else grab the bins! We've gotta get out now!" she yelled as Ratchet and Knockout grabbed a hold of what was left of the bot on the table. Reaching up with one hand she radioed the human commands, yelling as she waved with her other for Chromia, Kup, and the Vehicons around her to move to the exit as they grabbed the parts, Magnus leading the charge out of the building and into the iridescent portal. "Abort mission! Repeat, abort mission!"

Grabbing the last bin of parts, Elita was the last through the Ground Bridge portal, the explosion going off behind her sending her flying through. Landing with a rolling grunt, which sent the parts flying from her hands, Elita waited only a moment before she pushed herself up to her feet. It was the heavy footfalls that made her look up, her optics going wide as Megatron smiled down at her.

* * *

 **Author's Note:** I don't own the show.

Thank you all for hanging with me.


	5. Chapter 5

Megatron grabbed a hold of Elita's sniper rifle the instant she had it out and aimed at his head, using his grip to slam her backwards into the bulkhead wall. She shouted out in pain as she connected, but didn't get a chance to recover before he swung her face first into the floor, her arm pulled painfully behind her as he then pressed her down to the ground with head of the Forge on her back. Quickly looking around she saw her Autobots were struggling with some of the Vehicon forces, along with Starscream and one other Decepticon she had never seen before, in the hall, along with Knockout and the Vehicons that were with him in the field. From the looks of things, Megatron was waiting for them, but how and why?

"Stand down," Megatron ordered, giving a pull of her arm enough to make her cry out some in pain, "or I'll rip off her arm."

Seeing her group halt in their fighting, Elita did her best to look up at Megatron. "You piggybacked on our call out."

Megatron gave her a sneer. "Hardly. I was simply tracking my wayward troops. This simply confirms that they've been consorting with the enemy, which makes them traitors."

Despite her position, Elita gave a short laugh in disbelief. "Like you inspire any true loyalty. As for your troops, they weren't working with us, but apparently thought that we had a common enemy."

"Be that as it may, it looks like we gained a few more test subjects for you, Shockwave," the Decepticon said with a bit of relish to his voice as he looked over at the single opticed Cybertronian. "Take the lot of them to where we're keeping the others," Megatron ordered, glancing down at the parts that were strew along the ground. "Don't forget to take their scrap with them."

Still being forced to the ground, Elita watched as her's and Knockout's teams were escorted down the hall, with her team glancing back at her with varying looks. She most noted Ultra Magnus' frown, apparently not pleased at all with her about this turn of events. What she wanted to do was flip him off, but she managed to push that urge away with a deep sigh. Soon it was Megatron, a small hand full of Vehicons, Shockwave, and Elita still being held down by the Forge. She might have been ready for the harsh yank of her arm to pull her up, but it still hurt.

As he still held her by her weapon, Megatron calmly set the Forge to the side and took in the ever defiant look she had on her face. It appeared that she still kept her little spine of steel. Shockwave, by this time, had stepped up beside the two, clearly looking the tiny Autobot over.

"Is this the human that you had spoken to me about?" the scientist inquired.

"Yes, she is," Megatron replied with a bit of relish. "This little one has a few questions that I need answers to. Answers that I'm sure we'll have no trouble getting, thanks to your expertise."

Elita smirked up at the Decepticon leader. "Really? Not very smart, are you? Or are you forgetting what happened the last time that I had full access to your systems? But, by all means, let me have unfettered access again. I wonder what fun I'll have this time."

At that Megatron's look darkened a bit.

"Isolating you will not be a true concern," Shockwave stated bluntly as he pulled out a disk, adjusting the controls to it before placing it on her back plating.

Elita jerked at the sudden jolt through her systems, her optics going wide as a groan escaped from her throat. Her sniper rifle transformed back into her hand on its own will and she could feel her internal weapons locking down. Megatron had let her go by this time, watching as a pair of Vehicons grabbed an arm each and escorted her down the hall, followed by Shockwave.

Megatron looked back down at the Forge of Solus Prime, giving it a thoughtful frown as he lifted it up into his hands. He wasn't exactly sure how, but he felt that there had been a change with it. As if forever altered.

* * *

"What do you mean they never returned?"

Commander Witwicky looked like a force to be reckoned with as he stood before Optimus and Jazz, with the others gathered around the two. Agent Fowler and Slash were by his side, neither one looking pleased with the information they were given. They didn't blame the Autobots for what happened, but the news was still displeasing. The five Autobots that had went to investigate the M.E.C.H. location that had been called into Fowler were now missing, the last thing heard from the group was Maguns calling for an emergency Ground Bridge out and Elita to the humans that they were to abort their mission. When the group had not returned Optimus, Jazz, Bulkhead, and Bumblebee went to investigate their last known location, only to find that it had been blown up from the inside. The human team was bridged in to help handle the chaos and soon returned to their base when it was discovered that nothing was recoverable. It had apparently been a trap set up, but as to whom set it was still a mystery.

"There was a Ground Bridge that opened up in that area, but it wasn't ours," Optimus calmly stated.

"This just raises so many questions," Slash said as he rubbed his bald head. "The main one being, was this an elaborate trap set up by these Deceptors to capture our guys?"

"Decepticons," Fowler corrected, his tone of voice showing that it wasn't the first time, "and, it is a possibility. Why else would Megatron track and hunt down M.E.C.H.?"

"Why would he have left Chromia alive, heck even helped her survive until we got there?" Jazz wondered out loud.

"Lure us in under false pretenses?" Witwicky offered.

"So what are we going to do? Can't just leave them there?" Bulkhead said.

"Yeah, Megatron'll try to take his ton of slag from our girl for the insults she heaped on him the last time, or the others to try to break her," Wheeljack added.

[We gotta find ship and bust them out!] Bumblebee joined in.

"I'm with Bee on this," Smokescreen pipped up.

Arcee shifted her weight on her feet, "Finding the ship is the problem."

Optimus nodded to her. "We mustn't give up hope. We all know that they are also a very resourceful group. I believe that both sides of our dilemma will work their hardest to bring them home." Looking back out at the others in the room, he continued, "Right now, Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Jazz, Smokescreen, Wheeljack, and I will continue our search. Arcee, stay here, and continue the search with our scanners. Commander Witwicky, Slash, continue with your men on their search for M.E.C.H., it is possible that they have a hand in this. Agent Fowler, we need you readily to take any call, just in case Megatron does have them and wishes to use you to get in contact with us about a prisoner trade."

* * *

Elita had discreetly reached into one of her shoulder compartments, keeping the item hidden in her hand as they were able to catch up to the group. Kup and Ratchet had only a moment to glance back at her, but the pair eyed Shockwave behind her with unease. This was not looking good at all for them. The group slowly stopped in a section of hallway that had two doors on either side, Starscream opening the one on their collective right.

"The pink one goes to my lab," Shockwave ordered as Elita began to follow her group through the door.

"What? No! Ratchet! Kup!" she yelled as she tried to rush towards them.

Kup had been closest, but both he and Ratchet reached out towards her. Elita had grabbed a hold of Kup's hands as the guards struggled with all three of them. When Shockwave actually grabbed Elita by the plating on her back to yank her away that she made optic contact with the medic. The fear he saw there made him fight harder against the guards. The Vehicons used their higher numbers to throw the two Autobots into the chamber behind them, the pair landing in a heap on the floor.

With a laugh, Starscream punched in the command to shut the door, laughing at the pair in the floor. "Don't worry! She'll be in our _wonderful_ care," he told them with a dark joy.

It didn't stop Ratchet from rushing to the swiftly closing door, still seeing the fear on her face as she was dragged away backwards before the view was completely sealed away. So many things were racing through the medic's head as he struggled to calm himself. They all knew how dangerous their situation had become as soon as they realized they were on the Decepticon warship. The fact that Megatron had somehow managed to regain the stoic mad scientist into his fold between the fall of Darkmount and now did not bolster any hope that they would need to get out. They all knew the threat Shockwave was. What he was capable of doing. Elita had apparently heard about him from the others to know how much she panic the way she had.

With Elita in his lab, there was no doubt about what Shockwave was going to learn about her. No doubt Megatron had shared with is troops about the human form she contained, but they would soon learn about its ability to create Energon, perhaps even her ability to use the Forge's programming at her will without the item itself. What the medic was fearing the most was whether or not her human mind would be able to withstand Shockwave's favorite trick, the Cortical Psychic Patch.

"Ratchet."

Turning at the voice, the medic could only numbly look up at Ultra Magnus as the Autobot Commander towered over him.

"You need to tend to the wounded," Mangus ordered.

Looking back down at the pieces of their damaged friend, Ratchet could only nod as he moved to get to work. He couldn't help Elita right now, so here was his focus.

Ultra Magnus stood over his team while Ratchet began securing systems, carefully watching between his troops and the Decepticons across the room. Kup was aiding the medic, fetching the parts as quickly as he could find them in the mess, if they were even there at all. Chromia was sitting with the head of the bot resting on her lap, her hands brushing soothingly over the plating there has he would groan in pain every so often.

"Hang in there, Cosmos, just hang on," she called to him gently.

Looking back down at the medic, Magnus frowned. "Prognosis Ratchet?"

The medic was privately seething about the damage the humans had caused to yet another Autobot. "He'll live, but I can't fix him up completely here. Don't have all the parts."

Looking back over at Knockout as he moved from one damaged form to another, it made the Autobot commander leery of what might be in store for them all if they didn't escape soon. The question was, were the Decepticons in the chamber with them safe to trust?

Knockout and his band of Vehicons were shocked to see the five fliers that had come up missing in the past week. It wasn't unheard of for troops to be reassigned tasks, but this... this was a horrific explanation of what happened. They were mangled, missing limbs on some, partially transformed between modes in others. While the Autobots wasted no time in tucking themselves into a corner, Ratchet immediately beginning his work on trying to save their rescued teammate, the Decepticon prisoners rushed to inspect the others in the room.

"What did he do to you?" Knockout asked the first one he was checking out.

"H-h-h... he...we... com...bine...not c-combine..."

Deeper inspection of the five only made the others feel sick. Their bodies would never be able function how they used to, not without extensive repairs that Knockout doubted they would be able to survive. Even if he was able to be successful in that endeavor. Their internals were too twisted around, shifted as if Shockwave was trying to make the them fit together like a macabre puzzle.

Across the hall...

Being such a light Autobot no doubt made it easier for the calculating brute to carry her around, but Elita still did her best not to make it easy for him as she flailed as much as she could in an attempt to break free. Unfortunately for her, he was able to put enough force behind slamming her onto his work table that it knocked her dizzy. It also enabled him to bind her to the surface. Despite this, Elita struggled against the bindings.

"Lord Megatron has ordered several tests in accordance to questions he has about your … forms. For your sake, complete cooperation would be logical."

"Go frag yourself."

Ignoring her, Shockwave continued as he began to work the computer station. "I will begin by verifying the information that Knockout had gathered about you and the other human pretender that had attempted to join with Lord Megatron. When we get all the physical attributes accounted for, then we will explore the cerebral ones."

"Careful there," she smirked. "Even I fear what's in my own head."

"Believe me, I have most likely have seen worse."

All Elita could do was watch as he approached the table she was bound to once more, her optics shaking as she focused on the cutting torch he was bringing with him. It even sounded absurd to her, but she simply asked, "How about some music to work with?" before she started to play the most annoying song she had in her files.

* * *

Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.

I know it's been a while since I've really updated things. I've been doing my best to try to get all of this ironed out and I think I finally have a better idea on what direction this is all going. Unfortunately they weren't all my ideas and so I've got to iron through those kinks to make it more cohesive, since the majority that was to be the spin off for his stuff was going to be included in all of that. That being said, I'm going to do my best to get things going again. Thank you all for your patience, views, and reviews.


	6. Chapter 6

A couple of hours later, with Cosmos safely placed into stasis with what repairs Ratchet could complete at the moment, the medic finally rested against one of the walls in the corner that the group of Autobots had tucked themselves into. Unfortunately, without a task to occupy himself, his processor almost instantly began to play out all of the possibilities of what was happening across the hallway. Giving a deep sigh, Ratchet glanced over at Knockout and his group. The Deception medic had been attempting to reign in the chaos as he worked on one of the damaged Vehicons while simultaneously trying to give orders to questions from the others in their group as they tried to help ease the suffering of their companions. It was working as well as it could, given that only one of them was actually trained in deep repairs like that, but it was clear to the Autobot that they could use the help. That, and it would help keep Ratchet's mind occupied.

Giving a pained groan as his stiff servos protested to moving after being tense from repairing his own team member, Ratchet regained his feet, reached over to give Chromia a gentle pat on her shoulder and soft instructions to stay with Cosmos, and headed over. Naturally this did not go unnoticed by the other Autobots; Ultra Magnus giving a deep frown over his medic's actions.

"What is he doing?" the Commander inquired the Wrecker founder as he stepped up beside him.

"His job," Kup answered, shifting the detonator in his mouth around. "They might be the enemy, but they're still injured. A good Autobot would be remiss in a chance to aid where they can."

Magnus' frown deepened at the soft scold he received, but only glanced down at the slightly smaller bot at his side to find that Kup was focused on some component in his hand. "You didn't think that Cosmos needed that?"

"It ain't his. Elita slipped it into my hand before she was yanked away."

"What is it?"

"Not a clue. Wheeljack and Perceptor were the tinkerers of the group." Holding the piece up to eye level between his finger and thumb, Kup inspected it like a jeweler would a precious stone. "Looks a piece of one of Wheelgrinder's toys."

That made Magnus a bit leery. "Explosive?"

"Don't think so. We'll have Ratchet take a look when he gets a moment free to do so." After another moment, Kup tucked the piece away and headed over to join Ratchet. He knew a thing or two when having to stabilize his Wreckers when Perceptor was occupied with others that were wounded.

Knockout was wrist deep in mechanical parts and servo fluids when a brush of white and red came into his peripheral. At first he and the others thought Ratchet was there to simply complicate things, but when the Autobot only nodded at him and began to help one of the Vehicons with the repairs, Knockout was a bit relieved. Even a bit impressed. It was something reaching well before the beginning of the war, back before factions were made and medics just repaired those in need.

Working on the Vehicons actually helped soothe some of Ratchet's anger about how destructive the humans had been. Seeing the twisted forms of these Cybertronians reminded him how cruel his own kind were to one another. Also, it wasn't all humans that were to blame. It was only M.E.C.H..

Ratchet quickly glanced up to see Knockout standing over him, eyeing the Autobot with a quiet regard.

"Thanks for the help," the Decepticon said as he moved over to his next patient.

The older medic gave a slight smile. "You're welcome."

* * *

With the same high pitched electronic instrumental sound filling the chamber from the Autobot on his examination table, Shockwave was focusing on the sample of magenta Energon he had extracted from her. The door to his laboratory opening up called him away from his observations, where his focus now trained on Megatron and Starscream.

The smaller one gave a melodramatic sound of disgust. "Is she _still_ playing that annoying racket?"

"Her tactics of psychological warfare are logical, given her circumstances," Shockwave replied.

Starscream had to laugh at that thought. "I think you're just giving her too much credit."

"It worked on you, did it not?" Shockwave calmly reminded the Seeker of his need to flee from the lab after only ten minutes from when Elita began to play the song.

Megatron only gave a mildly annoyed glance down at him, making Starscream cringe a bit away from his leader, before he focused back on Shockwave. "How does your research progress?"

"On schedule, Lord Megatron," the single optic scientist answered. "Deeper examination of the Energon found in both of her forms concluded that it is in similar composition to that of Dark Energon. Similar, but not exact. For a comparison to be made, it is a living version of Dark Energon."

Megatron, by this time, had stepped up to the console, taking in the data for himself. "So that was why she was able to take the energy away from the shard in DreadWing's form."

"That conclusion is logical."

"What of the human body she contains?"

Leading the pair back over to the table, Shockwave focused down on Elita. He had used his cutting torch to remove the torso panels, exposing the woman inside. Both forms were shaking, the smaller one sweating glowing blue droplets. "Though seeming to appear unconscious, the smaller form struggled and screamed in unison as I inflicted harm on the larger one, and vice versa."

Shockwave turned to face Megatron, giving him his full attention. "In pulling away the scraps of illogical pieces of cloth armor the smaller one adorned itself in, I came across markings that coincided with the recorded damaged that you had inflicted onto her. Doing harm to one form affects the other. CNA scans are nothing like I have ever encountered before. It appears to be an almost impossible blend of Cybertronian CNA and the genetic data that forms the human population of this world."

"So she was in the right to say that C.Y.L.A.S. was a poor copy of herself. I wonder if she figured how to do this on her own or had some sort of help?"

The pair looked back over at the table to find Starscream leaning over Elita, chuckling to himself as he poked and prodded at the human inside. Realizing that he was being stared at, the Seeker quickly up-righted himself, an with a nervous chuckle quickly explained, "I was looking for a possible off switch to the noise."

"Your excuse is logical, but unproductive." Shockwave then focused back on Megatron. "Permission to proceed with the next phase of study."

"The Cortical Psychic Patch," Starscream said with a dark relish. Then he bowed forward a bit. "I gladly volunteer to hunt down the information you seek."

"Given the fact that you cracked so easily with just this _pathetic_ attempt from her," Megatron started with a wave of his hand towards femme on the table, "I highly doubt that you would be able to handle dealing with her in her mind."

It didn't please Starscream, but he still bowed out. "Yes, Lord Megatron."

* * *

Darkness surrounding her once more. It was not warm and comforting, like the time she was in the Etherial with Optimus Prime and Alpha Trion. She knew that she would not reach that place from here. Not yet. No, this darkness was her mind shutting itself away from the pain she had been enduring, physical and emotional pain of the worry over her companions. This was the darkness that she resided in before Vector Sigma brought her back. A void ready for her to create, or re-create, anything.

In this darkness she sat in a high back, plush chair. Her legs were crossed right over left at the knee, human in armor as her mind perceived her still. As she sat, her fingers slowly danced over a large cat that was curled up on her lap, it's head, tail, and paws gray, it's body tan with large swaths of pink with darker pink dots sprinkled throughout. Purring as it dozed, every flick of its tail sent rainbow sparks of light gently from it.

The heavy, world shaking footfalls heading in her direction made Elita look up from the cat in her lap. Slowly, Shockwave poured out of the darkness, first by the light of his single optic, followed by the general shape of his form, until he stopped before the chair she still sat in, focusing silently down at her.

"I was wondering who was going to be digging around in my head. I figured it would be either you or Megatron," she said calmly as she focused back down at the cat, gently brushing her fingers through its fur as she completed the last bit of its coding.

"Both are logical choices for the procedure," Shockwave stated calmly.

With a playful sigh, Elita gained her feet, cradling the cat in one arm as she continued to stroke it, the chair vanishing in the process. "What do you think of my little ear-worm? Adorable, no? The music gets into your head, takes forever to finally think past it, and not much to bring it back up to start it all over again."

"Your choice of companion is illogical."

"Well, it's not so much companion as visual representation of the music I chose." Elita smiled as the cat lifted itself up into her arms, placing its paws on her shoulder so it could nuzzle her as the music began to play around them."So, how long did it take for Starscream to crack?"

"Only a few moments, though your tactics do not affect me."

"No, I suppose not," she replied as she let the cat jump from her arms. A sparkle of rainbow light followed behind it as it made a couple laps around them before landing on the ground. As soon as it touched the dark, Nyan Cat slowly melted down into light and poured itself back into the flooring, its energy spreading under Shockwave's feet before it slowly faded away, the music along with it.

The Deceptincon looked down at his feet at the tingle of energy that passed through them from the feline's departure, but his systems had yet to detect anything out of the ordinary other than the fact that he had felt something during the procedure. Still, he would keep his sensors highly attuned to any tricks she would attempt to pull with him. His focus once again turned towards her as she began to speak again.

"So, how are we going to start this thing? You lead me through like a hypnotist, expecting that my subconscious to graciously open up before you like a book for study?" Her arms were crossed loosely over her torso plating as she appeared to completely calm over the events that had transpired.

"Your acceptance of this procedure is illogical." Her simple shrug over his observation was even more confusing.

"I read over the theories Ratchet had over the process, along with hearing the first hand accounts from the survivors of the process. There's not much that I really can do about all of this, though it seems like fighting the initial connection, or any further connections made as you proceed deeper, cause irreparable damage. Fighting you on this gets me no where, and there is still a probability that you'll get the information you're looking for."

"You are well informed, your conclusions sound."

"I've been known for my broken clock moments." The slight tilt of his head made her sigh softly as she realized she would have to explain. "The phrase 'a broken clock is right twice a day.'"

"A logical assumption."

"Well," she drew out on a playful sigh, "I guess we better get this started."

Elita stretched out her arms as the darkness around the pair began to shift. Ellan's childhood home filled in as she began to speak. "It all started well over three decades ago. A man fell in love with a woman, high school sweethearts and all that, and they had decided that they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. After being married a few years, they were blessed with a little girl."

"This information is not productive," Shockwave interrupted as he watched a little red headed toddler run around his feet now, squealing with delight.

"Sorry, you're the one that wanted to know. You and anyone watching will have to just tough it out. It's a loooooooong story."

* * *

Author's Note: I don't own the show! Thanks for reading!

Oh, goodness! Much love for Shockwave! His voice actor, David Sobolov, also did the voice of Depth Charge in Beast Wars, so of course he was an instant hit with me aside from my like for his G1 counterpart.


	7. Chapter 7

Shockwave stood by, unable to control the memories that were being accessed in her processor. It was an actual first for him since his discovery and perfection of the Cortical Psychic Patch technology, but it would be something that he would dwell upon later. It was not a problem at first, his subject gladly accommodating his want to gain knowledge about her, but when she had recalled a particular movie from a certain time in her life she had simply stopped everything to sit and watch it again. Glancing down from the costumed humans that were being over the top with their actions and words to the Autobot that was sitting on the edge of a chair, watching the other humans intently as she kept pulling yellowish bits of fluff from red and white stripped rectangular prism shaped bucket and place them in her mouth. It all was just absurdly...

"Illogical," Shockwave said out loud.

"Shhh," Elita admonishment as she waved at him without looking away from the show.

"You have somehow managed to manipulate the process into your own design."

This time she grabbed a large handful of popcorn and threw it at him as she shusshed him again. Shockwave simply watched as the tiny bits bounced off of his plating and disappear as they hit the black ground, vanishing into little flashes of blue light. "Do you have any idea how long it's been since I've been able to relax with a movie?"

"Your Cybertronian form does not need fuel from such primitive sources."

Rolling her eyes, the production that Elita was watching paused as she looked up at him. "You're a terrible date, you know that? Popcorn will _never_ be unnecessary when watching a movie. Besides," she turned the box upside down, the contents just doing an almost endless pour out, disappearing in a similar fashion as the few pieces she had thrown at him, "it's not real, so I don't see the big deal."

"I fail to see the significance of this memory," the Decepticon scientist flatly told her as he motioned with his gun towards the movie as it began to fade away.

"Oh, that's right. You're wanting to view _my_ memories." With a sigh she stood up, letting the chair and box of popcorn fade away as well. Tapping her chin a couple of times, Elita looked around the Decepticon, catching glimpse of shadowy forms with glowing lines behind him, but still kept her mind on task. She was doing her best to stall while her worm was trying to do its thing. Unfortunately it was slow going on her program's part and her captor was running out of patience with her.

"So... where did I leave off? Oh yes..."

Trailing off as she turned to look behind herself, where Shockwave was facing, she calmed into a serious mood. They watched as her human form worked at a desk, her fingers flying over the keys, large headphones over her ears. Her body language was a ease, with her dancing to whatever music she was listening to as she would pause to take sips from a large mug. It was supposed to be a defense satellite, one that could be used to cut out fire breaks in wildfire areas and the like. Of course with the name of the project that Colonel Bishop had named it made her feel uneasy, especially when she looked up the story behind the name. It was the nerd in her that loved to put in little bits of influencing information in any given project. In a way she saw it as giving a playful, if not loving, nod to the source materials. The design of the fully activated satellite would be shaped like a sword. But she still didn't care for the many thoughts of how such a device could be misused.

Her work had been interrupted with Joel rushing into her little office. It wasn't like her boyfriend to be so panicked, his eyes wide as he rushed over to her. She barely had time to pull off her headphones before he yanked out of her chair and through the facility that Special Tactics had taken up. "Joel, what's wrong?"

"We need a medic," was his rushed reply.

"But I'm not... oh my..." her hands covered her mouth as she took in the bloody sight. Rushing into their on site medical room, she grabbed what she could as she gave orders to a couple of soldiers in the room with her about what tools she as going to need, snapping on a pair of gloves to begin inspecting the bloodied man before her. "What happened? Who..." She glimpsed down at the name embroiderer onto the uniform jacket that had been tossed aside. Firming she began to clean the wounds on the man's face and torso.

"This is beyond my medical training, guys. Why haven't we gotten a new medic yet?" she muttered, but wasn't surprised when she didn't receive an answer.

"I managed to get him stitched up," Elita narrated for her observer. "Colonel Bishop seemed to be like a cat, having nine lives. He was the only one injured, but I had no idea as to why. I'm guessing now it was due to a M.E.C.H. mission he and the others were on. Needless to say, medics will give an earful if they feel like it, especially if they feel like they're being lied to. His wounds were not constant with the reports, much like the other guys who would get hurt, so we kept having the medics replaced. I thought it was odd, but looking back now, it was to keep them from getting reported. I was always tucked away in my little office and away from all other M.E.C.H. activities, so it was mostly an idle thought for me, until this happened. I started to look into things a bit deeper, realizing that Bishiop had other plans for my project I took the proper steps through the ranks to shut it down. When that failed, I tried to shut it down myself."

The scene changed to her being dressed in a nice, blue long sleeved shirt, black pants, and boots, sitting against the hood of a car, looking out at the view. She tried to drink the double dark chocolate moca coffee that Joel had got her before picking her up for their date, but she could only manage a couple of sip. Her nerves were worked up already since she had decided that she was going to break up with him tonight, but his behavior was worse than usual. Right now she was mad at him, trying to push for their relationship to be "more" and so she was cooling off outside. His mood didn't seem to improve when he had gotten a call while she was shoving him away.

He was pacing a bit on the other side of the car, so she was only able to catch bits of his side of the conversation, but when she heard him tell whoever was on the other end of his phone that 'he'd already put it in her coffee' her heart began to pound. It was all she could do at that moment to not spit out the drink she had taken in shock. She did managed to calmly place back what she had not swallowed into her cup, knelt down at the edge of the look out point that they had parked at, and pour out the rest of her coffee. She had attributed her light headedness to lack of eating that day, but now she knew he had drugged her. She needed to get away before it fully kicked in, and fast.

Standing back up made her dizzy, and she looked over as Joel grabbed her by her arm to help steady her.

"You ok, babe?" he asked.

"Not feeling all that great... all that coffee on an empty stomach is making me feel sick. I think I'm going to find a tree..." She managed to pull away from him, made her way to the treeline, but he still followed. "Really, Joel? I think I can do this by myself."

Ellan managed to make it into the woods for a while, glancing back to keep track of where Joel was at, before she notice him begin to rush towards her. That's when she began to run for her life. He looked frightening, like a predator out for prey. She had a good head start on him, though, rushing downhill towards another vehicle she had seen park on another paved look out point as she was pouring out her coffee, but she wasn't sure if she would make it in time before whatever he had drugged her with would fully kick in. She had to play this smart.

Without thinking, she grabbed a hold of a tree and started to climb up it as quickly as possible, holding her breath, despite her lungs screaming for air, as she watched Joel rush past her. When she thought he was far enough away, she shimmied back down, holding onto the tree as the world spun around her, and headed for the direction she thought the road was by the headlights she saw sweep past. Stumbling out of the treeline she found the rusted old white truck that she hoped to own some day, and rushed towards it. The drive had just somehow stopped right where she was stepping out, tuning off his head lights as the driver called out to her, though the windows were rolled up, "In the back, Kiddo. He's on your skidpate."

Ellan pulled herself over the side of the bed of the truck, wincing at the thud she had made, and did her best to stifle her groan. Her vision was going fuzzy as she looked up. It explained the shimmer that seemed to be happening as she looked up into the star covered sky. Then her hear nearly stopped in her chest as she heard Joel's voice calling out to her, his booted footsteps hitting the pavement.

"Hey, buddy!"

Her heart was hammering in her chest as he approached the truck. He must have seen her. Darkness called to her as she heard the creak of the window lowering down slowly.

"What are you doing out here in the middle of the night, Chav?"

"My girlfriend went into the woods to relieve herself, it's been a while. I went to look for her and can't find her anywhere. She's about this tall, wearing a blue, long sleeved shirt, black pants. I think she may have come this way."

"Nope, ain't seen any Janes around here."

"Oh, alright. Thanks."

Ellan watched with wide eyed panic as Joel slowly walked along the side of the truck, looking into the bed and seemingly right at her. He seemed to take forever to move on, but she could have sworn that he was looking right at her several times as he searched through the otherwise empty bed. The last thing she remembered before the darkness took over her vision was the angry look on his face as he moved off to head back down the road and the truck she was in slowly rocking as it took off in the opposite direction.

"I woke up in the hospital. Was told that a good Samaritan had dropped me off to the ER."

"What was the purpose for his actions?" Shockwave prompted.

"At the time, I thought he drugged me to take advantage of me... with other events later on I'm sure he would have still had his way, just would have been easier on him had I not caught on and gotten away."

"His tactics of destabilizing your system for capture was logical."

"I guess from a slag-pit's point of view," she muttered. When he focused down at her again, Elita only shrugged. "Not sorry."

"No, I doubt you would be."

"So, moving on from my failed relationship, I thought things were going great. I got my life back together, despite having to retire from the military early because of the trouble with Bishop, and I thought nothing about Joel since I kicked him to the curb and blocked all communication with him. Then things went south and fast."

Ellan was driving her car, heading towards a larger city to watch a movie and treat herself to a quiet night on the town at her mother's insistence. The winding roads of the mountain area had a couple of drop off on one side that let her see some amazing views with the sunset. It was nice, peaceful. That was until some jerk in a green and black muscle car decided to start tailgating her. At first she was annoyed, but calmly waited through to a section of the roadway where he could pass. Oh, he passed around her all right... only to slam on his breaks right in front of her. Ellan managed to stop her car before she hit the other car, a bit frightened over the guy's behavior. That fear quickly escalated when both the driver and the passenger in his vehicle got out, both dressed head to toe on masked military styled gear. She tried to back away, but found not only another car like the one in front of her blocking her in, a black van joining them, which more similarly dressed men flowed from.

When they opened her door and reached in to grab her, she fought them off the best she could with punches and kicks. It took three of the eight figures to hold her down to the ground, after she had racked one hard enough for him to writhe on the ground beside her for a little while. With her arms being tied behind her back, Ellan looked up to see two of the figures digging through her car, taking her purse and music player out before she watched them push her car over the edge, then her vision was blocked by the bag that was shoved over her head.

"After discovering your kind, Bishiop had rethought my usefulness," Elita continued as the scene changed to the laboratory she had been trapped in, with her working on welding a frame together on a large table. "An earthquake ended it all... and I woke up trapped in a metallic body. I ended up on Cybertron thanks to whatever it was I snagged from under Megatron's nose." Her skidding across the ground as she shot up at Megatron before it all flashing away in a brilliant light, the earthen landscape giving way to the desolate halls of Iacon, then everything went black. "Then I end up back on earth in time to help rescue my rescue party."

"This does not account for your human form."

Again Elita shrugged. "Ask Vector Sigma. It did that."

Shockwave focused intently down at her, stepping over to use his height to his advantage. "Vector Sigma? What other gifts did it bestow upon you?"

"Gifts? I don't know what you're talking about." Elita tried to laugh it off as she tried to back away from him, but her eyes kept catching the shadowy figures behind Shockwave as they began to solidify more, showing her horrifyingly massive figures forming in the darkness. With her being distracted, her mind began to fill in his inquiries behind her. Shockwave looked over as in her memory she had grabbed the Forge of Solus Prime, swinging the powered up relic down towards Optimus as he lay wounded on the repair berth, the bubble forming around them both as she began to direct his repairs. She had turned when he looked away from her, panic surging through her form. Megatron couldn't know about this. This was dangerous!

"No!" Elita shouted as she violently shoved Shockwave away, breaking the link the had connected to her.

* * *

Shockwave's optic suddenly powered on, making Starcream suddenly jerk backwards from apparently hovering over Elita's form again. Megatron calmly turned from the view screen he had been watching everything on, the scene frozen of her holding a powered up Forge in mid-swing.

"She was able to break free. Impressive." Shockwave sat up, disconnecting himself in the process.

"She seems to be full of surprises," Megatron smiled thoughtfully as he looked back at the screen. "Vector Sigma seems to have chosen another Prime."

Stepping up beside his lord, Shockwave added his addendum. "Or the Forge simply reacted to being near the damaged Optimus Prime. A moment, my liege, and I will have everything I need to test the theory."

Megatron turned his attention back to the screen and the frozen scene before him, deep in thought over the bits of puzzle they managed to pull free.

"What do we do if she turns out to be another Prime?" Starscream asked, joining Megatron as they waited.

"She might not be as docile as Optimus is at times, but she still might be as malleable."

The pair turned as the doors opened once more, Shockwave stepping through, Forge in hand. In his ever calm pace, he walked over to the Autobot on his table, while Megatron and Starscream joined him. They all focused on the Forge as Shockwave held it up over her Elita's unconscious form.

"What exactly is it supposed to do?" Starscream asked, not having been around to witness the relic in action while Megatron had wielded its power.

"Set it on her," Megatron ordered.

Slowly Shockwave lowered the Forge, the head of which easily hid the majority of the small Autobot, and yet it stayed the same. Megatron frowned thoughtfully, rubbing his chin as he thought over everything. She had managed to both melt through his plating during their fight, something that she wouldn't have been able to do even if it was pure Dark Energon flowing through her, and had used a component of her Ground Bridge remote control to open a portal. Turning to look at the still image, he took in the darker color that she used to be, and slowly the puzzle pieces slipped together.

"There's one more test that we can run. It will either prove our theory correct or not. If not, then you can run any experiment you wish to whatever end you want with her."

* * *

Author's Note: I don't own the show. Thanks for reading.


	8. Chapter 8

With the wounded stabilized, Kup settled in beside Ratchet as the medic paced beside the doorway. It was clear to the Wrecker that his old war buddy needed something to help reoccupy his mind. Once he managed to get Ratchet to stop his pacing off to the side of the doorway, but away from Ultra Magnus, he pulled out the little hot potato Elita had passed him.

"Any idea what it is?" Kup asked as he held up the piece. As Ratchet took it to give it a look over, he continued. "It's got Wheeljack's tech markings on it, but we haven't the foggiest idea what it was originally a part of."

"It looks like a fragment of the bridging chip that's utilized is Ground Bridge remotes," Ratchet said after a while, holding the piece up to try to get a better angle in the light. Eventually he had to walk to the center of the room where the overhead light was to even see the finer details. "It is..." he trailed off as he looked urgently up at Kup, who was still at his side. "Where did you get this?"

Ultra Magnus had joined the pair by this point, but Kup kept his voice quiet due to the Decepticons in the room still. "Elita passed it to me when she grabbed my hand. I think that was the main reason she cried out, not for fear for herself."

Ratchet looked back down at the piece, then his arm as his systems gave him a readout. "It has a charge to it."

"Meaning?" Magnus inquired.

"Meaning, if we can rig this up correctly, we can bridge out of here." Ratchet frowned deeply. She gave them a chance to escape, knowing that she would most likely have to be left behind.

"Are you sure that she wasn't originally intending to use it to get herself out and was only worried about it being found on her person by Shockwave?" Maguns asked.

"I'll forgive your sorry crank case this time about questioning my girl, especially because you don't know her like we do," Kup interjected loudly, especially when he saw the wounded look that crossed Ratchet's face at the very idea of Elita abandoning them. It not only got Maguns' attention, but everyone else's. "I've not only had the pleasure of watching her grow up, but I watched over a good chunk of her family as well. She comes from a long line of fighters, men and women who would and, in more times than not, did sacrifice themselves for others. In war times they fought to protect, in times of peace they gave of themselves to their community to make sure that no one did without.

"She stood up against higher ranking officers to shut down a dangerous program, only to lose her hard earned rank to a traitorous weasel that is now causing hell to rain down on _our own_ people," he motioned over to where Cosmos and Chromia were still resting against the wall. "She stood up against Megatron, knowing that she was well out matched in any given hand to hand fight she could ever give him, just to be able to completely shut down that same program that the same a-fore mentioned weasel put into the hands of someone worse than himself _and_ remove the tactical advantage that Megatron once had in the process."

"I've seen my girl scared, frightened for her own safety, but it was never when others were in need of care, and even then she a force to be reckoned with. _My girl_ will never cut and run to save herself."

Magnus could only sigh, glancing over at the more functional Decepticons as they were speaking in a more hushed tone with Knockout over whatever they gleaned from Kup's little defensive speech. He also knew from experience that he wasn't going to get anywhere with the stubborn old bot, so he just let the subject drop. "So she gave us a way out?"

Ratchet looked back down at the piece in his hand. "Short range only, I'm afraid. It'd get us to the ground, out of the ship. There's not enough power to reach the base."

"No, she wouldn't risk allowing Megatron to get to the base through it," Kup added, adjusting his detonator.

Ratchet had looked over at his old buddy, his optics settling on slowly blinking end of the device. "Is that currently attached to anything?"

Pulling his detonator out, Kup passed it over with a smirk as he realized what idea Ratchet had started to come up with. "Not yet."

* * *

Ratchet was still working on his little project when the door to their room suddenly opened, reveling Shockwave. The five damaged Vehicons cried out in terror at the very sight of him, doing their best to move as far away from the frightening Decepticon as they could. The Autobots and unwounded Decepticons were fearful as well, until they saw him toss Elita-One into the chamber before turning to leave. Starscream had stood off to the side, waiting for the larger 'Con to move before he tossed in his armload of her plating and torn clothing that had been removed to get to the human inside.

"Just adding to the refuse in the chamber, no need to get so worked up," he taunted before shutting the door.

Ratchet passed the pieces into Ultra Magnus' hands before he rushed over to examine the damage that Shockwave had inflicted. With Kup's help, he carefully rolled her over onto her back to get a better look. She had structural damage that he could fix when they got back, but he wasn't all sure about the damage to her human body, aside from some light scrapes that had already stopped bleeding and the Energon that she had sweated out. The only positive thing that they had at the moment was the fact that she seemed to be recovering enough from what happened to begin to wake up. Her larger form blinked its optics up at him, but groaned as if the light pained her.

"Elita... did he...?" Ratchet asked gently.

"...Yeah..." came her hoarse reply.

The medic was both appalled by the thought of her having to go through the Cortical Psychic Patch procedure and relieved that she managed to survive the process. He wouldn't admit it to anyone, but he had become so fearful about the idea of finding her processor shattered like so many others he had come across during the war.

Kup had helped Ratchet mover her over to their corner, letting her lay next to Chromia and Cosmos. As she became more aware of her surrounding she began to ask her fellow femme about their new ally. It helped put Chromia at a state of ease, which was Elita's current concern.

"It looks worse than it feels," she managed to mumble, one of her hands covering her human form.

"It looks like it feels pretty bad," Chromia admitted quietly.

Elita only slowly nodded, closing her optics again, letting her bodies rest under Ratchet's care.

* * *

Across the hall, Shockwave was reading over the data he had already collected, gleaning every byte of information he could from not only his findings, but from Knockout's records as well. While all of this scrolled over one set of screens, another was monitoring the storage chamber his test subjects were currently being held. Megatron had said that she was able to do things without the Forge nearby, so he was waiting to see if she would utilize its abilities if she didn't think she was being observed directly. It was this screen that Starscream was intently focused on.

"It looks like she's letting her medic do her job for her. When do you think she'll attempt to repair herself?"

"Given previous observations of our current subject, she is unlikely to use her abilities on herself. That being noted, she might still require time to recover enough before she does anything of interest."

"Blah, blah, blah," Starscream said as he flicked his hand around. "Women always seem to take forever to get ready."

Shockwave only gave a slight glance over at his unwanted companion before he focused back on his station. Pulling up one particular file, he activated it and let the sound fill the chamber, the same song that Elita had used. He could see the annoyed shocked look on Starscream's face as it was reflected off of his screen, but soon it became too much for the Seeker who, in turn, left the room.

"Thank you, Autobot, for your contribution in allowing me to work in peace," Shockwave said quietly as he let the song play. He could ignore it, but every one in a while he would see that feline creature she was holding in her mindscape. It brought back the puzzle he had discovered about how she was able to physically interact with him, so he turned to another set of documents and began to examine those.

* * *

Elita's optics shot open as she felt a stab of pain in her processor. It was proceeding a data flow of information that at first confused her, but as bits of her little ear worm song slipped free from her form she forced herself to try to relax back onto the floor and look around. Her mind was apparently starting to go through all the information she had siphoned from Shockwave. Kup, who was now sitting where she last saw Ratchet, was smiling down at her.

"Don't move, kiddo, you'll be alright."

"It was you that night... wasn't it?" she asked, her vocal emitter sounding rough to her own audio receptors. When he simply nodded she felt like tearing up. "Thank you, Handsom."

"Was just protecting my girl, though I'm sorry I didn't get to you before they grabbed you. Those chavs ran me off the road in their rush to get to you. When I found your car I thought I lost you forever. Imagine my surprise when I saw you getting out of Prime's cab at that truck stop."

Elita pouted up at him, but warmly grabbed his hand with her own. When the pain in her head became too much she had to pull her hands away to try to hold it. Ratchet, by this point, had walked over to check on her since she was awake and talking. Running his scans over her, the medic frowned at the odd data routes that were crossing through her processor.

"What's going on?" Maguns asked as he, too, stepped back over.

"I knew what Shockwave was going to do, he even admitted to planning on it, so I created a worm do dig in either his or Megatron's minds, you know, depending on which one wanted to take the tour through my head..." Wincing, Elita rolled to her side so she could curl up in a ball, fighting against the pain as it felt like it was getting worse. "My processor's trying to go through them now and it's a lot of dark, nightmarish forms and pain."

They watched as she ejected her human form with a cry of pain, it tumbling out onto the floor. Kup gently scooped her up into his hands, making sure that his fingers hid her where Shockwave had removed he covering. Her larger form relaxed afterwards, her smaller one still seeming to be in some degree of pain, but not as severe as it has been before. Ratchet had gathered the scraps of her clothing and brought the mass over, knowing that she would desire more than just her pants an boots at the moment. While it wasn't idea, with the flick of her pocket knife she was able to make a halter top out of her the remains of her jacket. That done, Kup then let her sit on his shoulder so she could at least be near eye level with most of the bots in the room.

"Better," she admitted as she used a piece of scrap fabric to wipe the blue away.

"That chip you passed to Kup, do you recall what it is?"

Looking at the medic, she nodded. "The thing I opened the Ground Bridge with back with the tower incident. I was hoping that you guys would have gotten out by now." She was a bit confused about the smirk that Kup shot Magnus' way, but didn't comment on it.

"Yes, yes, still working on that," Ratchet replied.

"What information was Shockwave able to retrieve from your neural network, soldier?" Magnus asked.

"I tried to play out the most mundane as humanly possible things for him. Terrible date when it comes to movies. Talks over the best parts. I'm sure he ended up with a good chunk of my recipes, though."

"What _important_ information did he retrieve?"

Elita rolled her eyes as she shook her head. "I'm still not all here from that, but I think I managed to keep important things from him. Please recall that I was also phishing his mind, too."

"Cylas had said you were like him," they heard a voice say somberly behind them.

Turning to face the Decepticons, they were surprised to find Knockout standing there, staring at Elita where she sat. He held none of his usual bravado, his snarky tone gone and mood calm for once. He seemed to be in either intense discomfort or study as he just looked the woman over.

"How so?" Kup challenged. He didn't like to hear his girl being compared to the traitorous weasel.

"A human in a built body, but, none of my scans of your ever showed that. I'm seeing it with my own optics, but I still can't believe it." Knockout just shook his head in confusion. "He said it was his plan to have you make the body and infiltrate the Autobots, that you were working for him. He's part of the reason I had so much information about you. Used it as a bargaining chip to try to get in good with Megatron."

"That's because I'm not like him. Unfortunately I did used to work for him, though not willingly for the M.E.C.H. crap. Where is he now?"

"Gone. The Energon poisoned his flesh. He was already rotting by the time he tried to join with us, I just helped speed up the process for what he did to Breakdown."

"That's why you were going after M.E.C.H.." Elita felt sympathetic to the Decepticon medic. He looked tired and betrayed.

Her soft tone of voice made Knockout blink up at her. He could see it in her tiny eyes that she understood him and why he did what he did. "Lord Megatron had left Breakdown in their hands as a punishment for getting caught. He told me that it was thanks to you Autobots that he had escaped, that your team rescued him when his own failed him. Your little speech back at Dark Mount got a lot of us thinking about how things are really going." He motioned back at the Vehicons that were watching him speak to the Autobots. "We decided to go after M.E.C.H. because of the threat they were."

"Apparently Megatron didn't like that," Ratchet said.

Knockout shook his head. "We didn't know he figured it out and _this_ ," he motioned behind him at the five wounded, "was his punishment for it."

Elita looked over at the five, but it was as she was looking them over that things started to click together in her head. "Kup... what's a combiner?"

Every head there turned to look right at her. Kup really wished he had his detonator to chew on so he could have the moment to think.

"A mythical Cybertronian form where a group was able to fuse together into one larger body," Ratchet supplied when his friend remained silent.

"Mythical as in 'Thirteen Primes' or mythical as in 'Unicron's my planet's core'? And just how big do you guys get, anyways?" When they just looked at her about asking that, she blushed a bit. "Unicron's my planet's core... okay, stupid question. Anyway, what I'm asking is are they made up or could they really have existed?"

"Given everything that we've witnessed in the past few years, they could have existed." Ratchet rubbed his chin in thought as he focused on and past Knockout. "An attempt to create one out of your companions looks to have been Shockwave's goal with them."

"He just failed at it," Knockout added sourly.

"Not failed, just learned how it didn't go this time," Elita added softly. The sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach was that was going to be their fate if they all didn't get out of there. "Can they be moved?"

"Not as they are, no."

That made her frown. "Alright... here's my idea. Ratchet finishes up with his task while Kup takes me over to look over your friends to see what I can possibly do to help."

Knockout frowned at the idea of this little human being able to do anything in regards to the broken Cybertronian forms that both medics in the room haven't already done or thought of. Instead of voicing it; however, he simply nodded at her and turned to rejoin his group. When Kup began to follow, he halted when they heard Magnus speak.

"Elita-One, a word if you don't mind."

Kup looked at the woman on his shoulder and returned her nod before walking over to the commander.

"What is it?" Elita asked when Kup stopped.

"What exactly do you think you're doing, soldier? We can't take them with us. They're dangerous."

With a bone weary sigh, Elita moved to stand up. Her form was still felt weak, so she had to grab a hold of pieces of Kup's head plating to help pull herself up. The Wrecker had moved one of his hands up in case she lost her balance, but he knew she needed to do this.

"Ultra Magnus, I'll start by saying that I've heard great things about you, your record during the war and how you became the commander of Optimus' forces. I _do_ have respect for you in that aspect. Unfortunately, I see where you've fallen away into your power like so many others in my own world's military services. You still treat the Autobots here as if they are simply bots to command."

"I am merely doing my job as their commander," Magnus felt he needed to defend his actions.

"How many of you are left, Magnus? How many Autobots still function? Decepticons? Cybertronians as a whole? How many of you are still out there in the universe?" She let him think her questions over before she continued. "From what I was shown, Cybertronians, as a whole, are dying out. You are but a handful here. The majority of Optimus' success before you arrived was his treatment of his troops, despite his team being so small. A bond forged in battle is a strong one. Men from different back grounds, different lineages, different social circles, become brothers in arms. Not friends in arms. Not acquaintances in arms. Brothers. "

She motioned behind herself, towards the Decepticons across the room. "When commanding becomes the only way things are done it becomes a dictatorship. When commanders forget that his or her subordinates are actual living beings, they become pawns. They are only seen as disposable play things or cannon fodder to save the upper command's sorry skid plates."

Elita felt herself go weak, and slowly slid herself back to sitting on Kup's shoulder. "To be honest, there might not be anything that I can do for them except send them on, but I can't leave them here knowing that a fate worse than death awaits just because they were trying to do the right thing and Megatron didn't like it."

Magnus just looked at her quietly. She wasn't boasting about what she did for Optimus, what she could probably do for the Vehicons. She wasn't filling her own mind with self-importance over her gift, as Ratchet had called it, but simply spoke from her core what she believed. "Understood."

With a gentle pat to his shoulder plating, Kup turned and headed over to were Knockout was waiting for them.

* * *

Author's Note: I don't own the show.

Thank you for your views, reading, follows, and reviews.


	9. Chapter 9

Pre-Chapter Note: The song that I'll be using in this chapter is "Heathens" by 21 Pilots if you're wanting to have a general idea of the flow of energy.

* * *

Knockout stood amazed as he watched the human not only show care and compassion as she looked over the injured of his kind, but when she would speak with himself and the other Decepticons in the room. Even the Autobot who was holding her was polite towards them, like before. He wasn't sure what she was trying to accomplish, but it both added to and helped solve the puzzle that she had been since he first came across her on the roadway. Even after her examination of the five she stayed and spoke with them, getting to know each Vehicon as if they were uniquely different despite their origins. When Ratchet called over to her, Elita even seemed apologetic about having to cut their conversation short and politely excused herself. Certainly strange behavior for a commanding officer from his experience.

Kup walked back over to where the other Autobots were waiting, stepping up beside the medic. "You called?"

Ratchet held up the make-shift Ground Bridge control, having not only utilized Kup's detonator, but parts he had scavenged from the walls of the room. "It's complete, I'm just not sure how viable it is."

"So, we'll need a plan B?" Magnus asked.

"That would be busting out of here the hard way," Kup said with a smirk.

"Difficult, not impossible," Elita replied, nodding back towards the others in the room. "Especially if we can get the help."

"Do you think that they'd be willing to join us?" Chromia asked as she stepped closer to the group.

"Possibly. They know what's in store if they stay."

Magnus nodded, then focused on Elita again. "What is your conclusion about the situation of the wounded?"

Elita glanced back at them, seeing Knockout speaking with the Vehicons again, and turned back to Magnus. "I can help. Between the plans I pilfered from Shockwave's head and my own imagination I think I can fix them to at least being functional on their own terms. I have my song picked out and everything."

Ratchet's optics went wide. "You damaged yourself severely fixing Optimus, there's no guarantee that you'll survive this."

"I can pull the energy I need from the ship itself, and the parts," she countered. "Put Cosmos over there and I'll finish getting him repaired, too. If we're going to have to bust out then I have to do this. We may have to get lower on the ship in order to bridge out anyways."

Magnus looked at his group, weighing everything. The longer they waited to escape the more dangerous it became not only for them, but the other members of Optimus' team as they were no doubt searching for them. If he did let Elita-One use her gift, then it would most likely leave her weak and defenseless, but in return it would gain them how many more hands to help? On the other hand, could they trust the Vehicons with them not to scrap them in the chance of returning to Megatron's good graces? Did Megatron even have good graces with anyone under his command that they could return to?

"Do it."

With a nod, Elita climbed onto Kup's hand and let him place her back at her larger form. Rejoining with it sent a fresh jolt of pain, but she did her best to ignore it as she felt herself sync up. The old Wrecker was there to give her a hand up to her feet, but it still took a moment for her processor to stop swimming around. These actions didn't go unnoticed by the Decepticons in the room, especially when she walked over to them.

"We hopefully have a means of escaping, but we could use the extra help to give it the best chance of success. I can repair you, all of you, give you new forms, give you a chance, if you wish to join up with us, but understand that there will be no going back into Megatron's fold. If you don't wish to join with the Autobots, then I can send you on to The All Spark and spare you the torment that Shockwave will possibly inflict. This choice is yours to make on your own, as individuals, but I need to know your answer."

Knockout couldn't believe what he was hearing. The very idea of joining up with the Autobots was one thing, but to repair them? Even those who were the most damaged and _he_ couldn't see a way to do so without several weeks per Cybertronian to do so, if that was possible at all? But he could tell she was serious and sincere with her offer. Looking around at the others, he slowly took in each nod from not only the functional Vehicons, but the wounded as well. He knew she saw it, too, when he turned back to her.

"Alright, boss lady, we have a deal."

Elita nodded, and turned back to the others. They watched as she motioned for Kup and Ratchet to move their own injured over to where the Vehicons remained before she spoke with Ultra Magnus at the door. Their optics widened as they saw her run her hand over the seam of the door, it beginning to glow and melt together as she spoke with the Autobot commander. When she had managed to weld the door shut she made her way back over to his group, but stopped under the single overhead light.

"Everyone ready?" she asked, looking around. The Autobots by the door nodded, but prepared their weapons as they watched between the door and the room. Looking back at the Decepticons, she waited for their mark. With the others ready, Elita closed her optics and began to focus.

* * *

Periodic checks of the screen had, up to this point, only showed the Autobots investigating the Vehiocns that he had previous worked on, the human form separate from Elita's larger form as she attempted to dig around in their structures. This was, as of yet, nothing of interest to him. He had shut off the sound well after Starscream had left, its purpose done for the moment, and had been working in peace since the annoying Decepticon had stayed out of his chambers.

Shockwave's attention immediately shifted to the observation screen as his sensors detected a slight power surge in the holding chamber for his test subjects. All that were able to stand were, the Autobots had moved their wounded comrade over to where all of the Decpticons were still residing on their side of the room. Elita was walking over from the doorway, which was not shown on his screen. The other Autobots were missing from his view as well, which meant they were most likely beside the door. They were planning something.

"Shockwave to Megatron. I believe that Elita-One is attempting to utilize her abilities."

" _Acknowledged, Shockwave."_

* * *

Megatron, from his vantage point on the bridge, looked up at the main view screen before him as Soundwave patched the visuals through. Right now there were only his disloyal troops, the wounded Autobot they recovered, and Elita just standing in the room.

Starscream, having found the bridge to be a welcome respite from the annoying music that Shockwave had taken to playing, was watching with as much interest as his master. "What do you think she's planning?"

"Whatever it is, you had better get our troops ready to disrupt it," Megatron ordered darkly as he rested with his hands behind his back.

"At once, my lord," the Seeker bowed before rushing off.

With a couple of squads with him, he stood on the other side of the door that Shockwave's little experiment resided. Looking around to see if everyone was in position he let Megatron know that they were ready at his word.

* * *

Magnus looked over from Kup, who had his audio receptor pressed against the door, to Ratchet, as he was watching Elita with a deeply concerned look, to Elita as she began to focus, her hands and eyes beginning to glow brightly as she began to float off the ground. He was confused at first about what she was doing to the door, wondering why she would seal it shut, until she explained to him that it would keep them safe until she could finish her task. Also, if they had to break out, that the last place she saw the Forge was across the hall in Shockwave's lab. This was, of course, if they couldn't bridge out of their current room.

"Sounds like troops are gathering," Kup muttered.

"Understood," Elita replied.

Then music began to fill the chamber. It was haunting and soft, but she began to gather power directly from the light, it swirling around her form at the motion of her hands, twisting into a almost gas-like state as it moved through the chamber and surrounded the new ones as the bass joined in. There were noises of slight panic and concern from the energy cloud, but nothing torturing or apparently frightening about what was happening in the bright, swirling vortex.

Behind the Autobots they heard the grind of the motors and gears struggling to open the doors. That soon gave way to the percussive maintenance they were attempting on the other side of the door. Kup backed away from his position, calling his weapons forth. "Looks like they're onto us."

As she felt each one's form complete, Elita twisted her hands around, curling her fingers in as if gathering the energy away to focus on the others. One by one Cosmos and each former Decepticon was pulled free from the swirl, until only the five injured were revealed after she sent an orb of blue light she had formed in front of herself into the energy that had surrounded them as the song died.

To everyone's surprise Elita stayed powered up, but turned to face the doorway and the Autobots waiting there. "Now, Ratchet."

Magnus looked down at the medic as he pressed in the glowing button on the end of his device, but nothing happened.

"We're too far from the ground," Ratchet said urgently.

"Then we'll have to make a break for it," Magnus said grimly, looking back at the door that was starting to buckle inward.

"I've got the door, if you don't mind," Elita stated calmly, pulling more energy from the source above to gather it into a large mass before herself.

"Move!" Kup exclaimed, grabbing Chromia with him as Magnus pulled Ratchet off to his side.

Out in the hall...

Shockwave had stepped out of his laboratory to see for himself the difficulties that Starscream was having in attempting to enter the storage chamber. The feed that he had from the room had failed as she began to wield the very energy she gathered from the Decepticon ship around herself.

"Why have you not gained access to the chamber?" he demanded of the smaller Decepticon.

"They had managed to seal the door shut on their side," Starscream snipped.

"Illogical. They do not have access to the tools to accomplish such a task."

"It hardly matters. We have almost broken our way through." To prove his point, Starscream pushed his way through to get a peek into the chamber. "Why is it so bright?"

Starscream's scream of panic filled the hall as he rushed way from the doors, barely avoiding them being blown outward by a force that sent the Vehicon troops scattering down both sides as he and Shockwave flew backwards into the laboratory behind them. Magnus and Kup led the charge out of the room, followed by all of the Autobots, new and old, with some of the newer ones helping Ratchet guard Elita-One as she did her best to move on her own.

Magnus took the moment to look inside of the laboratory, where Shockwave and Starscream were attempting to free themselves from the mass of equipment they had crashed into, found the Forge resting against the wall beside the door, and took it in hand. "I will be taking this back," he said before quickly using it against one of the recovering Vehicons that had begun to attack them as the group moved down the hall.

Thanks to the first hand knowledge of the ship from their new friends, the Autobots were able to quickly gain access to the lower parts of the ship, Ratchet attempting the device every few moments until it finally opened up before them. One of the new fliers went through first to scout, gone for but a moment before he peeked back through, not wanting to a repeat of the mess that got them captured.

"It's ours, come on!" he said, motioning for the group to follow.

Without wasting any more time the group went through before it closed behind them.

* * *

Megatron quickly made his way through the ship as soon as Soundwave lost the feed to the chamber, knowing that somehow Starscream was going to lose yet more prisoners. He found his troops on the ground, alive but damaged, the doors of the storage chamber blown off of the ship and pinning yet more of his troops, and Shockwave and Starscream stumbling out of the laboratory, which also had received damage.

It was clear by the look that their leader turned his way that Megatron was not at all pleased with Starscream. Especially when Soundwave had notified him that a Ground Bridge portal had been utilized without him on the ship, its end trajectory the ground below them. "You let them escape?!"

Naturally, he cowered away and stumbled over himself as he attempted to explain that there was nothing he could have done.

"My liege," Shockwave interrupted as he stepped forward. "Perhaps it is time to test my other project."

"Y-you don't mean..." Starscream asked, slowly backing away as he recalled the horrific form that had followed Shockwave through the Space Bridge portal.

"I do."

Just the thought alone of finally seeing the beast's might in action was enough to make Megatron smile. "So be it, Shockwave. Release my beast upon them."

* * *

The other end of the portal opened into a rocky desert terrain, the Nemesis hovering high above them in the sky. Soon they were left in the cool, darkness of night, their only source of light being the moon that was hovering low in the sky as it was only beginning its accent.

Everyone gave a form of relief over their escape. Elita finally gave into her weakness and sank to the rocks below her, Kup at her side to keep her from completely falling flat while Ratchet ran his scans over her. She was awake, but otherwise drained.

Magnus looked around at his whole group, then opened his communicator. "Ultra Magnus to base."

" _Reading you loud and clear."_ Arcee's voice came back. _"Need a bridge?"_

The roar of a hungry predator looking for its next meal echoed around them, but they all saw the massive shadowy form launch from the ship, unfurl its massive wings, and circle around towards them. The unasked question that had crossed all of their processors was answered when Knockout, who was now sporting a blue paint job and a red face, weakly whispered, "The Predacon."

Focusing on his communicator again, Magnus replied, "No, we assistance."

* * *

Author's Note: I don't own the show.

Thank you for reading, your views, favorites, and reviews.


	10. Chapter 10

Arcee's hands flew over her control panel, letting her lock onto the closest Autobot near the base, and opened a new communication to him. "Bee, I'm opening a Ground Bridge for you. I need you here."

~Understood,~ he replied.

She rushed from the command center to the Bridge chamber, opening up the gateway and shut it as quickly as Bumblebee pulled through.

"I'll locate the others and send you the coordinates to bring them in. Magnus and the others are in trouble," Arcee said as she rushed out of the room.

~Got it!~ Bee replied, taking his place at the controls.

Working together, the pair managed to get all but Optimus returned to the base, since the Autobot leader was actually in the field near where Magnus and his team were already. With the rally coordinates in place, the rescue team rushed through, Bumblebee staying at the controls for their extraction.

* * *

The group of Autobots did their best to scatter as the Predacon honed in on them and swept over the group. The scream of jets soon filled the air as the a squad of Vehicons rushed to join the battle with Starscream in the lead. The Ground Bridge portal that opened up before the Autobots was the gateway for the land based Vehicons to enter the fray. Both group; however, were shooting from a distance as they let the Predacon sweep in again.

The Autobots didn't wait, returning the assault. The Aerialbots took to the sky, following Cosmos' lead as they began their retaliation against Starscream and his group. When the Predacon approached again, those on the ground had to quickly dive away again as he this time sent a fireball before he approached them. Gaining their feet again, Magnus looked around to take in the chaos reining around him.

Kup and Chormia were fighting along side Knockout and the three others that were changed with him, the group easily taking out the Decepticon forces that were out to destroy them. Ratchet was beside Elita, trying to keep her out of harms way as she was trying to fire back at the air forces, only to realize she wasn't able to even lift her arm. In the sky, the commander took in the dog fight, and just beyond that was the glint of something incoming, and doing so quickly.

Optimus Prime flew overhead, aiming for the Predacon as it once again turned towards the Autobots on the ground. While he didn't knock the massive dragon from the sky, it still moved the beast off of its path enough for it to take flight and circle wide again. As the Autobot leader focused on his task, a Ground Bridge portal opened up behind the group. Mangus turned to face the incoming threat, Forge in hand, and ready to take them out as they came through. Fortunately for him he recognized the rev of Wheeljack's engine before he led the charge out of the gateway. Unfortunately, it seemed that more Decepticons filled the area from their own, including Shockwave and Megatron.

The Predacon swept around once more, aiming for his target again. Optimus did his best to follow the swift beast, but shouted down at Ratchet when he realized that he was not able to stop the beast in time. The medic looked up, his optics wide in shock at the fireball heading his way. Elita saw it, too, and quickly shoved Ratchet out of the way before she twisted herself around to cover the human form inside from the flames as the fireball burst against the rocks. The ground shook beneath them as the Predacon landed, scanning with its optics between the two before it started to peruse Elita as she scrambled across the rocky ground while she was trying to regain her feet.

"Stay away from her!" Ratchet yelled as he called his blades forth and rushed their attacker.

The Predacton took three strikes from the medic before it stopped its pursuit to roar down at its attacker before swatting it away with a powerful blow. Elita saw it all, her heart stopping in her chest as she saw the medic go bouncing painfully across the rocks. The next moment she gave a pained, surprised scream as the Predacon leapt at her, grabbing her in one of his powerful front claws, and took to the air once more as Optimus had reached them.

Megatron simply laughed over the capture and Optimus' attempt at retrieving her. "Such a magnificent creature, Shockwave."

In the air, as they watched Starscream let his troops take the blows, the Aerialbots, still in jet mode, quickly saw the creature fly past them.

"What do we do, Moe?" one of them shouted to the companion beside him.

"We can't let them keep her, Larry. Megatron'll figure out what she can do if he hasn't already."

"There's no way we can stand up to that thing!" Curly retorted.

"Not like we are right now," Shimp added.

"Guys, we've got to do it," Steve added as he flew up to join the conversation.

Curly motioned down at the ground. "That's what Shockwave probably wants to see, if he got it right or not."

"We're not leaving her in their hands," Moe stated firmly. When he looked around at the others he saw them all nod in return. "Aerialbots! Form Superion!"

Most quickly became focused at the shifting of forms in mid-air, and the bright flashes of light as the individuals came together, forming one huge Cybertronian. It landed with an earth shattering force before standing up to its full height. Swiftly the form crossed the ground, in full pursuit of the Predacon flying high overhead.

With most of the ground forces quickly being subdued, Megatron and Shockwave simply turned back to their Ground Bridge to await the Predacon's return to the ship. It would also be from this vantage point that they would observe the results of Shockwave's experiment that Elita had successfully completed for him.

For his size, Superion easily covered the distance to be able to catch up to the Predacon, and gave a huge leap into the air, catching the beast by the tail. The suddenly added weight yanked the beast down, sending the whole group crashing into the ground. Autobots followed quickly as the rest of the Decepticon forces retreated. Cosmos, in his vehicle form, carried Wheeljack, Kup, and Ratchet underneath him, the trio holding onto a couple of carry handles the UFO shaped Autobot had for carrying other Wreckers into battle quickly. As they approached Elita's form on the ground, they quickly let go to gather her up away from battling titans. Kup reached her first, pulling her into his arms, but all three on the ground saw that her eyes were glowing brightly again, but she wasn't moving.

"What's going on, Doc?" Wheeljack asked.

Ratchet was already reading over his scans, turning it from her over to the combiner that was battling with the Predacon and back again. "She's … I think she's holding them together."

"So we can't get her out of here, yet?" Kup looked up urgently at as the Predacon knocked Superion closer to them. "Slaggin' wonderful. Sometimes you're not bright, girl."

Optimus landed beside his medic, quickly taking the update of what was going on without question. "Find a way to break her control over Superion and retreat back to base. I will keep the Predacon occupied."

The beast turned to face its new opponent as Prime joined the fight, the combiner moving with its commander in order to attempt to subdue their foe. Ultra Magnus began issuing instructions to Bumblebee about where he needed to open up Ground Bridges to collect the groups that had separated, allowing a quicker removal from the field of battle. The last one to open up was directly behind Ratchet and his group.

With a shake of his head, Kup opened up his communicator with Superion. "Separate now and get into the Ground Bridge."

Superion only looked back at the one giving the orders, saw the distress that was going on, and quickly separated himself into his five components before they rushed to help get the others through the portal. With everyone else through, Optimus followed, the gateway closing behind him. The Predacon, who had been chasing Optimus as he moved away, braced himself before landing harshly on the rocky ground that the light had once stood on. With its prey gone, it let out a angry shout before flying home to the Decepticon Warship.

* * *

Between the repairs and the new additions to the Autobot cause, the Dauntless was a very busy place once they all returned. Despite the battle they had to get out of the ship and after, the damage overall sustained was minimal. Naturally, since she didn't turn any of her repairs to herself when she fixed up the others, Elita was still damaged from the abuse Shockwave had put her through, in addition to what she had done for Knockout and his group.

Both medics, Ratchet and Slash, along with June were working on her individual forms while Knockout had focused on the injuries of the others. This was, of course, with an ample audience that seemed to have gathered in the room itself and right outside the door. At least those in the room attempted to be of some use as they would fetch what the medics would call for.

On the bridge of the ship, Optimus, Ultra Magnus, Kup, Jazz, Commander Witwicky, and Special Agent Fowler were figuring out what to do with the new recruits to Team Prime.

"Are you sure we can trust them? I mean, they were Decepticons not two hours ago." Agent Fowler didn't mean to sound harsh, but he was simply trying to be a voice of reason in the discussion.

Magnus focused on the humans where they were standing on the command table. "Ratchet and Kup can both confirm about the state of the Vehicon soldiers that were already being punished for defying Megatron. Given the choices that they faced if they stayed in Megatron's fold, I have no doubt that they would do whatever it took to escape it. Including binding themselves to a human."

"There is always the capacity to change, Agent Fowler," Prime's ever calm voice stated. "It is something that we must keep hoping for if this war is ever going to end."

"There's something to be said about their abilities to track down M.E.C.H., even staying ahead of us in doing so," Witwicky added.

Jazz nodded. "Plus any Autobots that were there they had made sure survived until we were able to retrieve them."

Kup looked up at Optimus. "If it will help, I can keep them at the secondary location until we decide if they're friendly or not."

"A wise precaution, old friend."

"That would be if we can get them away from our infirmary," Jazz added with a smirk.

"I have a feeling that it's going to remain rather crowded until Ratchet has completed his repairs," Magnus said.

"Crowds are something that I know Slash doesn't particularly care for when he's working," Witwicky said with a sigh.

Fowler shook his head with a laugh. "Despite everything, it looks like your team just doubled in size Optimus. I just hope that it's going to be enough."

* * *

Megatron stepped out of the large doors that opened out to the top of his ship, Starscream following his master like a submissive whelp despite holding his head high with pride. The Decepticon leader took in the vantage point of where his troops would gather for missions, taking flight off of the spacious area. His troops were not of his concern at the moment, nor his focus. It was his scientist that he was looking for. He found Shockwave as he scratched the beast's hide, the Predacon easing at its creator's touch. The pair simply approached, allowing Megatron to look the beast over.

"I must say, Shockwave, that your creations never seem to disappoint."

"Never disappoint?" Starscream rolled his optics at the very thought. "He couldn't even complete the combiner that he attempted, needing that pitiful _human_ to complete _that_ task for him. And this poor, pathetic _creature_ couldn't even succeed in bringing her back to the ship." When he realized that Megatron was glaring down at him, Starscream wilted a bit. "Just... tactical observations, my lord."

"Despite your wording, your observations are logical," Shockwave stated as he continued to scratch the Predacon along its optic ridge. "Elita-One had managed to access some of my schematics during the Cortical Psychic patch and utilized the information to trouble shoot and complete my combiner project."

"Utilizing that ability akin to the Forge of Solus Prime to do so." Megatron rubbed his chin in thought. He could use this information in some way to his advantage. "Continue with your endeavors, Shockwave. And see to it that Knockout didn't have any extra bytes of data that you could some how utilize with them."

"At once, my liege."

* * *

Author's Note: I don't own the show.

Thank you for your views, reads, and reviews.

I have to admit that seeing Shockwave petting on Predaking like he does in the show is very heart melting for me at least. He understands the bond between owner and pet. It's also why there's a tone of heart break in his voice and body language in the show when he agrees with Megatron that his literal 'pet' project is to be terminated.


	11. Chapter 11

Waking up to find an angry looking medic looking down at her almost made Elita want to laugh. Fortunately for her the pain that went through her as she attempted to move kept it from escaping. Resting somewhat on her side, she took in the room and smiled, especially the perturbed looking Kup that was standing off to the side. Honestly, he and Ratchet almost looked identical with the same scowl they wore. But apparently the old Wrecker wasn't upset at her, because as they locked optics his scowl faded into a pleased smile. Behind her she heard a commotion of voices and Ratchet giving a deep, weary sigh as they grew louder. Something about it was annoying the medic and Kup was having a good laugh at it.

~Oh! Hey guys! She's awake!~

Puzzled by this, Elita let Kup help her finish sitting up on the repair berth so she could see the influx of bodies that rushed into the room. Bumblebee led the charge, followed by Bulkhead, who had the kids with him and was guarding Chromia so she wouldn't get trampled, Cosmos, whom she recognized from before he was repaired, Jazz, and a whole mass of new bodies that she vaguely recalled. She felt her optics widen in both surprise and alarm at how quickly the room was filling.

"Ep, ep, ep! What have I told you all about coming in here while my patient is still recovering?" Ratchet sounded grouchier than normal, which as probably part of what Kup was finding so humorous.

Elita could only smile, trying to take in all the questions that were being thrown her way, even accepting the kids onto the berth with her, especially Raf and Miko as they rushed to hug her. As things quieted down, she began to recall bits and pieces. Frowning a bit, she attempted to put some of the pieces together. Apparently she was doing so out loud, which prompted Kup to rest a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't force it. They'll all line up easier that way. Just know that you did your thing so we could escape."

"Which is precisely my issue with this whole thing," Ratchet interjected. "We were fortunate to be able to repair what we could, but this ability of yours is causing problems." Then the medic raised his voice as he indirectly addressed the room, "Problems that right now you need rest, in a quiet environment that a medical facility is supposed to provide, so that they have a chance to properly mend."

"Alright." Elita groaned a bit as she passed the kids back up to Bulkhead, then moved to stand up with Kup's help. "Not like I can rest around your cranky behind anyways. Let's take this little gathering elsewhere so I can get caught up with everything."

The mass quickly moved ahead, Jazz leading the way to one of the cargo holds where there was plenty of room and crates to sit on. This left Ratchet's work area quiet, as he was wanting, but without his patient. Another sigh escaped him as he went back to his task of organizing his tools. He couldn't get out of his processor all the damage he had been fixing as of late, especially when Elita was being so careless about her ability. He wanted, no needed, to speak to her about it, but it appears that would be for another possible time.

In the cargo hold, Elita was sitting on a group of boxes, the kids on one beside her, as she listened to everyone chatting it up. It was easy to see that the older Autobots didn't fully trust the new ones to their fold, but there was an attempt at trying with both sides. Especially when it came to picking out new names for the new recruits.

The Aerialbots were first. While she thought the names were a thoughtful homage to the Three Stooges, she didn't think that it was as original that they could have, since they had gained their own identity and freedom to really choose for themselves. Moe chose the name Silverbolt. Larry took on the name Air Raid. Skydive had once been called Cury. Shimp liked the name Fireflight, so took that as his own. Steve, who had been the odd one out, preferred the name Slingshot. Of the three car Vehicons that has joined them, they now had Prowl, Brawn, and Springer. Knockout had decided a name change was befitting for him as well, liking the name Tracks.

Then the one question that most of the new bots had on their mind was suddenly blurted out by Silverbolt. "How were you able to make us combine?"

Elita blinked up at him, a bit puzzle herself. "What do you mean how was I able to?"

"We felt you connect to us when we combined to save you from the Predacon," Skydive said. "Are going to need you for every time we do it?"

Elita sat back, feeling some pieces settle into place in her head. "Oh... I didn't have any control over that. Sorry, guys. There's something...the theory of..." she was snapping her fingers as she tried to recall the thought in her mind, "I think Vector Sigma called it, um, Enigma of Combination or the like, but, honestly I have no idea. As for holding you guys together, I'm as lost about it as you are. I didn't repair you in a way for it to happen, though I don't have complete control over this crazy thing yet."

Kup cleared his throat a bit, making the room quiet down. "As entertaining as all of this is, we need to be getting back to our base."

Tracks nodded to the older Autobot. "We do appreciate that you allowed us to visit." Then he turned to face Elita. "Thank you."

She blinked up at him, a bit confused. "For what?"

"For giving us a second chance."

She could see it reflected in the optics of all the former Decepticons as they sincerely smiled at her. If she was in her human form she would be blushing. "For what little I did, you're more than welcome."

Tracks nodded a couple of times to himself, then motioned for the others of his group to follow. Bumblebee was at her side, giving her a hand as she stood up.

"I guess I'm off to Alden to get caught up with them over there," she said as she gained her feet.

"And to avoid Ratchet," Kup smirked over at her before he left the room. He caught the glare she sent his way, but decidedly ignored it.

* * *

Sitting off to the side on the back of her bike form, Elita was going over paperwork again. New recruits, reports over what Spike's team found about her discovery of the underground rail system that turned out to interconnect the different M.E.C.H. bases, or would have if there weren't rock blockades much akin to the laboratory she had been locked away in, and supply requests were among the mass she had been working through. It was boring, but Slash wasn't letting her do anything more in the time being. Honestly he was a surly as Ratchet right now, especially with his lecture about her near heart attack from what he was sure was over-stressing her system.

Slipping off the bike, she walked over to two large maps that was hanging on an even larger cork board, one was of the United States, Canada, and Mexico while the other was of the world. Pins were placed over known M.E.C.H. locations on both while hand written notes and pictures were pinned around the edges and over the oceans with string connecting notes to location pins. Different colors indicated different notes: red for confirmed information, orange for possible, blue for checked and cleared of any activity. Looking over her notes, which included the information that Tracks and his team had given her, Elita calmly changed around a few of the pins before backing up to take a look at the whole. It was more information than they had and it looked to her like a good place to start getting serious about ending this threat.

Jazz walked into her little corner of the bunker that functioned as her personal space and work office, smiling at the music she had been playing. He always enjoyed the audio patterns and apparently Earth lack none. He could find anything to fit any mood it seemed. Right now she was playing soft, instrumental that Miko had refereed to as classical. He also wondered if she realized that she danced a bit with it while she worked. When she looked over at him, obviously hearing his approach, he simply returned the happy smile she gave.

"I think we're going to be able to start making a big push into getting Autobots back now, thanks to Tracks and the others."

"That was the update that Commander Witwicky gave me after I bridged in," Jazz said, kneeling down beside her to look at the map himself. He knew that she would have a digital copy made for the Autobot's records on the ship when she had completed her task with it, but he appreciated the hard work that she was physically putting into the task. "I also heard that your medic here's been giving you a hard time, too."

Elita shrugged a bit. "They both have been, it's their job. I've also known John longer, so he knows that I take it with a grain of salt."

"We're just all worried that you're going to burn yourself out."

"I do, I do." She shrugged a bit. "I can't develop this talent if I don't use it. I can't push my limits for the same reason. I learn from each time, like this last one that I can absorb more than just Dark Energon." Noting Jazz's concerned look, she sighed. "Right, you didn't know about that. Sorry. I discovered that little tid bit when I fought Terrorcon Dreadwing. Tested it again helping his brother find peace as well. It just doesn't feel good afterwards."

"I heard about how you used the energy from their own ship. Ultra Magnus said it was a sight to behold."

Elita looked back up from her map, an eyebrow arched in confusion. "Didn't expect that."

With a shrug, Jazz looked back at the map with her. "So, where do you think we'll be lucky next?"

"They don't have too many more places to hide. We might have to prepare Spike's squad with how to take down mechaloids, if M.E.C.H.'s built more. Or Cybertronians." Seeing his frown she nodded. "I don't like it either, but they need to know how to take out a Decepticon if Megatron gets desperate. He's already gone after my kids."

Noting her dark tone at the end, Jazz understood what he had been told from Bulkhead about when they lost Autobase Omega. She was still mad at Ratchet about not going to get the kids and Megatron had took them before she got to them.

"I'll talk with the others about it," he replied.

* * *

In an underground cavern, Shockwave worked in blissful peace. Despite his pet not returning with its prize, Megatron had still seen the value of the beast and had him begin to create more clones of the long forgotten creatures that had once ruled over Cybertron. Starscream was given control over his Predacon, though it pained Shockwave that his creation would be subjected to the power abusive Decepticon, it was still logical that the creature would be put under military command. Still, he hoped that his pet would not be damaged by Starscream's tender ego.

The gathering of fossils from his previous pets he had sent to this world back when it was only an Autobot outpost went overall well. The sizable selection of creature incubating in their cylinders attested to their success over the Autobots that had attempted to thwart their efforts.

With his most recent check of his creations completed, Shockwave focused back on the crates of Synthetic Energon that Megatron had ordered moved to his laboratory. He could see the attempt at its creation, but there was no logical path for him to follow in the formula so that he could create a usable form of the energy. Still, he understood that there was promise for something much greater here if he would continue to press forward.

* * *

It was just over a week later that the Autobots and the human team had taken down two M.E.C.H. instillation, rescuing two of their own before M.E.C.H. realized that they were under attack. Blaster and Ironhide were quickly retrieved and repaired thanks to Prime's capable medics. Pressing on the new captives; however, didn't lead to any more productive leads as they were hoping for. According to Jazz, there were still three Autobots missing from the Logikrator, Preceptor, Blurr, and Firestar, and they all feared that they were running out of time.

Tracks and his team were quick to volunteer in helping the humans out with training, both groups seeing the benefit of working together. It not only allowed all parties to be able to work with and learn how to best take down the different species, but it allowed the Autobots newly joined to Team Prime to learn about the world that they lived in from the very humans that lived it. Blaster would often be playing the music that her guys shared with him, happily enjoying the entertainment with Jazz, who had also taken up to spending most of his time with her and Spike's squad. Tracks had absolutely no trouble fitting in, finding some guys enjoying racing as much as he did.

Elita was looking over stacks of paperwork again, a relatively normal task for her to be doing when anyone came to check on her, but her search was for something deeper. Something buried within her own past. She was looking through names, cross referencing when she was active duty to names that were still in effect now. There _had_ to be a lead she was missing. If she could just find it then the downfall of M.E.C.H. was to follow. She could feel it.

Her eye caught something, but it was as she was pulling it closer to herself that the music outside shut off and she heard the rush of the men as they began to gather up their gear. Setting her work aside, Elita merged with her larger form and joined them in the main room as she opened up her communicator. "Elita-One to Autobot base Alpha."

" _Alpha Base here,"_ Ultra Magnus' voice replied in her ear. _"Are you ready for your strike team?"_

"Yes, sir," she replied with a smile. "I send the coordinates when we have a positive on the location. I would appreciate a medic on hand this time, if you can spare Tracks."

" _I'll see what I can do. Good luck, soldier."_

Closing the communication, Elita stood beside Spike as they double checked the map before heading out. The sun was setting and they would use the cover of darkness to their advantage.

~To be continued...

* * *

Author's Note: I don't own the show.

Thanks for all the reads, views, and reviews.


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